A female US soldier who came to personify the invasion of Iraq appeared before a US congressional hearing on Tuesday to reject the Pentagon's portrayal of her as "Rambo from West Virginia."
Appearing as a witness at the Congressional committee investigating military misinformation from the battlefield, Jessica Lynch said: "Tales of great heroism were being told. My parent's home in Wirt County [West Virginia] was under siege of the media all repeating the story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting. It was not true."
Lynch was a 19-year-old private captured by Iraqis in an ambush at Nassiriya in the opening days of the war and subsequently rescued by US forces.
"I have repeatedly said, when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspire our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good," she told the committee.
"However, I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary," she said.
People in the US did not need to be told "elaborate tales," she said.
"The truth of war is not always easy to hear but it always more heroic than the hype," she said.
When Lynch was captured at Nassiriyah, the US military told the media she had been wounded but carried on firing until the end.
She had in fact been riding in a truck and had not been firing a weapon. The US military also presented her escape as a heroic feat, ignoring the role of friendly Iraqi medical staff in the rescue.
Lynch said she was not politically motivated and supported the troops in Iraq, but added: "I believe this is not a time for finger pointing. It is time for the truth, the whole truth, versus misinformation and hype."
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