I have such immense respect for that brave young woman it's unbelievable.
According both to media reports and what a cousin and a friend of the family tell me, Jessica refused to break. She only gave them her name, rank, and serial number, which 1) infuriated the interrogators...but 2) might have saved her life.
They knew she killed Fedeyeen commando's and probably wanted to break her before ending her life. I'm absolutely thrilled to hear she has told her family she gives God the credit...she was praying to Jesus the entire time and even though it was horrible, she was able to remain strong and endure.
I know there was a lot of agonized prayers on her behalf. I've prayed a lot of prayers the past 30+ years, but haven't prayed with that fervor in a long time. People can say what they want, but it did mean more to me because she was a teenage girl. I've never hit a woman in my life..even Becky. We'd scrap as kids (she was a little brat
, but I'd always hold back...in fact, I'd usually just grab sis around the waist and tickle her...God she hated that
Even when I was 10 and her 6, I was far too big to hit her.
I can't understand the mindset of hitting a teenage girl. Even though Jessica is a US soldier, you'd think there was some sympathy because of her age and petite size...but no. They were as brutal to her as they would be to a 6'3 220 lb Drill Sgt. It's an evil I can't comprehend. The only place you see animals like that in America is on death row.
I was discussing it with a lady I went to school with....we've known each other since 3rd grade, and we both find it incredible she survived. She also served in the army, as a supply clerk...and she said while yes, they are trained in basic to fire weapons and defend themselves, they aren't prepared...mentally, for an ambush far behind the front (or surviving physical and psychological torture for over a week like Jessi endured). Tammy compared the ambush as like being carjacked at a red light at midnight--you can plan and train to defend yourself with deadly force, but nothing can simulate the real thing--as a supply clerk, the mindset just isn't there of a massive surprise attack. I've never been a soldier, so I'm only taking her word, as well as what Tracie (one of Becky's friends a well as my dad) told me about basic training.
I have it on good authority that Jessica learned to shoot well before joining the army by hunting and shooting guns with her brother and dad near her home; which is very believable. That's how my sister and me both learned..shooting cans off a fence, bottles, targets at my uncles farm out in the country. We'd use a shotgun, .22 rifle, dad's old .38. I've spent many summer afternoons growing up plinking at cans and targets. It was as natural to us as putting a cane pole in the farm pond fishing.
What people can't seem to understand is this wasn't some "brutish" masculine woman (Janet Reno, Chyna). While yes, apparently she's always been a tomboy, Jessica is still a girl...she wanted pink casts, her hairbrush.
Becky's the same way. She'd climb trees, shoot bb guns, and fish like the rest of us, but she also wanted her nails done, the frilly dresses..she was still a "girl". Becky enjoyed the bubble baths, the manicures, things like that.
Both Becky and Jessica played basketball in high school--yet both also competed in local beauty pageants.
I've never met Jessica, but I don't see my little sis enduring torture in an Iraqi prison for nine days (especially not at 19)....but she might have surprised me. Becky was a brave girl....and still is. She had three kids, and her hubby and me were more nervous than her every time. Sis defintely endures being stuck with needles and IV's better than me
