Where are they Now ? Jessica Lynch.

Jessica Lynch. You know. The sweet, blonde, girl next door, American-pie 19-year-old soldier and kindergarten-teacher wanna-be from down home Palestine, W.Va, whose army squad, misread the map, took a wrong turn in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23, 2003 and was, ...er..., ambushed.

With slaughered comrades, (Army Staff Sgt. George Buggs, 31, of Barnwell; March 23, 2003, in ambush of Jessica Lynch’s 507th Maintenance Company convoy near Nasiriyah) taken prisoner, full of bullet holes and slashed with stab wounds then kidnapped into a hell-hole Iraqi hospital and held for eight days by vicious trapist, sado-masochistic, gun toting,masked, brutal Iraqi guards then "rescued" in the most daring and macho made-for-TV moment of the war by elite teams of hunky U.S. Army Rangers and U.S. Navy SEALs. Wow.

Well the show hasn't finished yet, three years later.

Jessica Lynch, The sweet, blonde, girl next door, American-pie 19-year-old soldier and kindergarten-teacher wanna-be took another turn and is now a student at West Virginia University on a State Scholarship. She obligingly and spiritedly says, "I want people to remember me as being a soldier who went over there and did my job fighting for our country, our freedom. Nothing special. . . . I'm just a country girl at heart." (By Dale Sparks -- Associated Press)

Well the lifelong yearning to be a kindergarten teacher lasted just one one education class.

She changed her major to journalism because, " of her experience with the media" you bet, and spends Wednesdays working at the campus radio station. Still, she is unsure if journalism is in her future - fiction writing maybe after her tour de force I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story— published by major league house Alfred A. Knopf on Veterans Day.Lynch and Bragg shared US$1 Mn.advance for the book, whith a first printing run of 1/2 Mn. "Co-author" Bragg was the Pulitzer Pize winner whose memory about who wrote his stories left him tho leave the NYT rather pronto.( Amazon I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story (Hardcover) 261 used & new available from US $0.01)

The book launch helpfully co-incided with a non Jessica Lynch approved showing by NBC's airing of the movie Saving Jessica Lynch.based on the book by Iraqi lawyer Mohammed al-Rehaief, who says he helped Lynch while she was in the hospital. Lynch, however, claimed she had no memory of al-Rehaief - or the stabbing, raping, sodomising, rescue etc.,

Who can forget that heart stopping day 2 years later in April 2003 when Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced that Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, 33, "who helped U.S. special operations teams track down Pfc. Jessica Lynch", then living in the US with his wife and 5-year-old child was granted asylum in Arlington, Va., which allows him to work in the US. He can stay in the U.S. indefinitely and can eventually apply for U.S. citizenship.

Remember too how bureau spokesman Bill Strassberger said , "While humanitarian parole is not common, it can be awarded for any urgent humanitarian reason." ... oh MY god pass the Kleenex .... (Amazon : Because Each Life Is Precious: Why an Iraqi Man Came to Risk Everything for Private Jessica Lynch [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover) 127 at US$0.01).The Delaware State Bar even gave the brave Iraqi a silver tray, a plaque, a US$1,000 check and a resolution recognizing his actions and making him a lifetime honorary member of the state bar.

Remember former House Speaker Bob Livingston's firm, the Livingston Group, hired Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief -- to advise clients seeking contracts in Iraq.

What Next ? Miss America ?

"I enjoy broadcasting, and I know I want to do something with children," she said. "I'd really like to start a kids TV program here in West Virginia. Something for kids who are in the hospital or have cancer."

Once engaged to former Army Sgt. Ruben Contreras, she now has a new boyfriend in Parkersburg. She protects details about her private life, saying only that she met him through family members.

"I want people to remember me as being a soldier who went over there and did my job fighting for our country, our freedom. Nothing special. . . . I'm just a country girl at heart," she said.

Makes you proud to be a soldier.... as Tom Lehrer used to sing.