Reading Journal 4
Rebecca
4/14/10
Pages 121-161
I Am a Soldier, Too
By: Rick Bragg
Marines told a lawyer about a blonde captive in the Saddam Hussein General Hospital and people believed it was Jessi. The marines also said that they had seen one of Saddam’s Fedayeen slap the young woman across the face. However, Jessi said she was not slapped: “Unless they hit me while I was asleep–and why do that?” she said. “She said she was never tortured, never threatened while in the hospital. The doctors and nurses would later say the same, that they never saw anyone abuse her, that neither the Fedayeen nor the soldiers mistreated or threatened her.” (Bragg 123)
Jessi’s family and friends are very relieved that she is alive: “But for now, it was enough to know that Jessi had survived and was back in the hands of her army so that she could get medical help. They knew then that Jessica had almost died at the hands of the enemy, but did not know about the hands of the Iraqi doctors who had cared for her. It would be a complicated story altogether, but for a few hours in a two-bedroom house in Palestine, West Virginia, it was blissfully simple. She was alive.” (Bragg 138) Jessi’s loved ones have been very worried about her being missing. They feared that she was dead. So, they were very happy to find out that she is alive.
I think Jessica is very fortunate to be alive. She is the only person out of the entire lost convoy to survive. Also, I think she was very fortunate to receive care at the Saddam Hussein General Hospital. The Iraqis could have easily seen that she was an American soldier and killed her, but the hospital staff made sure that nobody found out she was an American by covering her face. I think that shows courage in the hospital staff because they could have been severely punished if someone of higher authority found out they were doing that.
| Posted 1 year, 10 months ago