Hat tip Tim Blair
The military has revealed that one soldier initially listed as killed in action while riding in the same doomed convoy as former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch was actually captured by Iraqi fighters. More than a year after the March 23, 2003, ambush, the military released new details on Tuesday to the family of Sgt. Donald Walters (pictured, left) of Salem, Ore. On Thursday, the details were released to the public. Walters lived in Kansas City, Mo., from May 1996 to July 2002, and his wife Stacie, now lives in Kansas City.
Walters "was held separately from his fellow soldiers and killed while in custody," according to a news release from the Oregon National Guard. "He was executed -- shot twice in the back," Maj. Arnold Strong, public affairs officer for the Oregon National Guard, said during a telephone interview Thursday. "An Iraqi ambulance driver witnessed six fedayeen rebels standing outside a building guarding him while he was still alive. That same witness evacuated his dead body to a hospital."
Walters’ family held a press conference in Portland Thursday evening to discuss the new information. U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley also attended the conference and denounced the actions by Walters’ captors. "I want to express my anger and absolute disgust with those who flouted every rule of international law, every religious and moral commandment, and every principle of common decency in commiting such an act against a helpless prisoner of war," Hooley said. After Hooley shared the information about Walters’ death, the soldiers’ parents, Norman and Arlene, addressed reporters. "This new information is very painful, but we are grateful to know the details about our son’s brave stand against his enemies," Walters’ father said. "We have to realize this happened at the beginning of this war," Walters’ mother said. "They returned six POWs from the 507th Maintenance Company, which Don was with ... one of them they killed."
Arlene Walters, who wore a heart-shaped pendant with her son’s picture, said Sgt. Walters fought alone until he was shot in the leg and captured. "He probably killed quite a few of their fellow soldiers, and they were angry," she said. "Don would not give up, I can guarantee you. Don would not surrender." Walters’ fate drew attention because the details of his actions remarkably resemble a story circulated in the media, based on anonymous sources, describing how Lynch had fought until her ammunition ran out.
After her rescue, Lynch, of Palestine, W. Va., said she did not fire a shot. She has since been the subject of a book and an NBC television movie. Her injuries resulted from a Humvee crash during the firefight in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah, just days into the war. An Army report released last summer on the ambush of the 507th Army Maintenance Company said that Walters, 33, likely died in the fighting that left 10 other soldiers dead. The report said there were no American witnesses to his death. In March, the Army posthumously awarded Walters the Silver Star for gallantry with marked distinction. Walters had initially been awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. |