Seeking the full Lynch story

By Daniela Relph BBC correspondent in Washington

The Jessica Lynch publicity machine has been working at full speed this week. The months of silence after her rescue eight months ago are over - Jessica Lynch is everywhere.

Young, photogenic and female, Lynch was made into a hero

There is the cover of Time Magazine. There are glossy photos in Vanity Fair. Coming up are appearances on the major talk shows - David Letterman and Larry King will all get their share of the Jessica Lynch story.

But it was the first interview that every television network in the United States wanted, the world exclusive, Jessica Lynch in her own words.

The bidding process was fierce for the celebrity soldier, the perfect example of the fragile, all-American heroine.

ABC, led by its main presenter, Diane Sawyer, won this particular contest. This latest chapter in the Jessica Lynch story takes up 90 minutes of peak television airtime.

The network clearly believes the appetite for this tale of wartime conflict and confusion remains.

What TV audiences will get is one soldier's account of her experience that differs drastically from the official version of events that emerged from the Pentagon.

According to Jessica Lynch, there was no shoot-out when her maintenance unit was ambushed as reported at the time. All she can recall is falling to her knees and praying.

She also questions the release of the grainy, night-time video of her rescue from an Iraqi hospital.

That film, she tells Diane Sawyer, was manipulated by the Pentagon who put its own particular positive gloss on events. She describes herself as "no hero".

Effect of silence

The words of Ms Lynch answer some of the doubts that have been brewing for several months about her capture, her rescue and the subsequent adoration that has surrounded her.

Her silence enhanced the myth that this young, naive woman from a small town in West Virginia had become one of America's great war heroes.

There is no public animosity between Jessica Lynch and the rest of her unit, perhaps just a bit of discomfort about her post-war celebrity and some envy at the big pay cheques coming her way

For the Bush administration, Private Lynch was in many ways in the wrong place at the right time.

The United States was looking for a good news story to emerge out of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They got just that from the photogenic young female soldier.

Slowly, extra details have emerged that Ms Lynch accepts serve as a more accurate portrayal of her experience.

She was no solitary heroine. She may have had fractures to her arms and legs, spinal damage and spent nine days in hospital but many in her unit also suffered and showed great courage.

Miller's tale

Take Army Mechanic Patrick Miller. Everyone knows about Jessica. Few know about Patrick.

They were part of the same unit. As they were ambushed, Mr Miller drove through the assault, trying to steer and duck bullets at the same time.

A tale of two POWs - Johnson (right) has no book deal yet

When he stopped he started shooting at a group of Iraqis ahead of him, desperate to thwart their attack.

Private Patrick Miller had not used a gun in seven months. He had even failed his first marksmanship test in the army.

The unit accept without his intervention more of them would have died. But for him, no million-dollar book deal or made-for-TV movie, even though he was one of only 90 US soldiers who served in Iraq to receive the Silver Star - an award for bravery.

Take Shoshana Johnson. She was shot in the ankles during the attack and publicly displayed as a prisoner of war, the terror etched on her face to the distress of her family.

Again her post-war experience has been free of big money offers and public adulation. Instead her focus is on fighting for more disability benefit to help her through her recovery.

Soldiers too

Their stories and experiences are perhaps the real story of the capture of Jessica Lynch, the version that comes without government spin and media enhancement.

There is no public animosity between Jessica Lynch and the rest of her unit, perhaps just a bit of discomfort about her post-war celebrity and some envy at the big pay cheques coming her way.

It is an unease Private Lynch shares.

But she has chosen to take the offers that have come her way including that million-dollar publishing deal.

Her biography is entitled "I Am A Soldier Too". That sentiment is a view shared by those who were with her during the ambush last March, the forgotten soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Unit.