Latest on Pfc Jessi Lynch; Brandi released from committment

[JetMaxx]

According to this article I jst came across, former POW Jessica Lynch won't be in the U.S. army anymore; and apparently neither will her little sister Brandi.

I'm honestly relieved....if I had a daughter recovering from near-fatal injuries she recieved on a battlefield, and my only son serving his country at Fort Bragg, the LAST THING I'd want to see is my other daughter....my baby girl marching off to army boot camp.

IMO that humble family has suffered more than enough; and I'm grateful the army granted Brandi's request to be released from her delayed-entry committment.

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Lynch back to work -- at physical therapy

By Rick Steelhammer
STAFF WRITER

Two days after returning to her Palestine home, it was back to work for Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

On Thursday, at Parkersburg's Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital, Lynch resumed her physical therapy regime, designed to help her recover from three fractures to her left leg, a broken disc in her back, a fractured right upper arm, and multiple breaks in her right foot. Before her return to West Virginia on Tuesday, the ex-prisoner of war had been undergoing therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she had been a patient for three months.

State military officials said Lynch's physical therapy program would continue to take place at the Parkersburg hospital, punctuated by follow-up visits to Walter Reed every month or so.

The Army has made no decision yet on whether Lynch, who has difficulty standing and walks with the assistance of a walker, will be offered a medical discharge, according to Maj. Mike Cadle, spokesman for the West Virginia Army National Guard. "That's certainly a possibility, given the extent of her injuries," he said. If a discharge is granted, the Army would continue to coordinate and cover the cost of Lynch's therapy, he said. CNN, citing a family spokesman, reported Tuesday that Lynch plans to seek a medical discharge from the Army. That matter remains up in the air, state military officials said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Lynch's younger sister, Brandi, who graduated from Wirt County High School last month, and had signed up for a delayed-entry enlistment in the Army, learned Thursday that the Army had honored a request for a release from her enlistment commitment. State Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Randy Coleman said Brandi Lynch sought the release so she could go to college, possibly with her sister, and be with Jessica during her recuperation.

Lynch's boyfriend, Army Sgt. Ruben Contreras, who accompanied the Wirt County native and her parents home from Walter Reed on Tuesday, was scheduled to return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where the two met, sometime today or tomorrow. Her cousin, Danielle Little, said in an ABC News interview Wednesday the two plan to marry.

[streetsoldier]

One would think that the Army would grant her an Honorable Discharge once her current enlistment is up, and keep her "on the books" at least that long for medical attention. "Medical under Honorable Conditions" doesn't give her the necessary medical privileges she will need....unless they have changed the criteria over the past 30 years. Perhaps somneone who's presently in service can offer some insight here...

As to Brandi...the Armed Forces do have a humanitarian policy about situations such as this one, and if Brandi has decided that she'd be of more use at home with Jessi, I do not think anyone should have any problem with that.