Jessica Lynch speaks at the third annual International Women’s Day Breakfast on Wednesday morning.
Jessica Lynch encourages audience to keep pushing when they face life’s challenges
BY DEBBIE PAGE
Jessica Lynch, a former U.S. Army Private First Class who gained national attention after becoming a prisoner of war during the Iraqi war in 2003, delivered a captivating keynote talk during the third annual International Women’s Day Breakfast, hosted by the Iredell Health Foundation.
Proceeds from the event, which was held at The Cove Church in Mooresville, will assist women who cannot afford health and preventive services, such as mammograms, ultrasounds and other diagnostic screenings.
Lynch was the first POW to be rescued since World War II and the first female POW rescued in U.S. history. She was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War medals for her service and bravery.
Now a published author, motivational speaker, and advocate for military families, Lynch talked about about overcoming her obstacles and how perseverance helped her survive both physical and psychological trauma.
After graduating high school in 2001, Lynch planned to go to college to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a kindergarten teacher.
After her sister Brandi, who was a high school sophomore, randomly invited a military recruiter to their rural Palestine, W.Va., home, Lynch and her brother Greg, who just completed his freshman year of college, both signed up for a military stint in July, with the goal of using GI benefits to help pay for their college expenses.
Greg left that summer for basic training, and Jessica left for South Carolina to train the week after the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center. Petrified and having never flown, she said goodbye to her former life to embark on her military adventure.
Lynch laughed at the story of her loss of a contact lens on the journey to basic training, which led her to receive a pair of black-rimmed, donut-size glasses, jokingly called BCGs (or Birth Control Glasses), in military parlance.
After successfully completing basic training, she became a supply clerk. She loved being a soldier, and she decided while serving in El Paso, Texas, to re-enlist on the condition she get to a post in Hawaii. Her dream post was delayed, however, after her unit got orders for deployment to Iraq.
The nervous 19 year-old was in Kuwait with her unit for a month, awaiting their equipment. On March 20, 2003, just as they were to enter Iraq, President George W. Bush declared war.
They packed up and joined a long convoy headed into the country, but their unit fell behind because of mechanical difficulties and eventually got lost. Now 19 hours behind the rest of their convoy, the 31 soldiers in 16 vehicles in her unit had no working GPS signal or communications, and maps were useless since sandstorms covered the roads to complicate navigation.
On March 23, the unit saw lights and headed toward them, mistakenly believing that they were emanating from their convoy partners. Soon, however, the unit realized after crossing the Euphrates River that they were entering the hostile city of An Nasiriyah.
Lynch was in the backseat of a Humvee when it was hit by enemy fire and crashed into an 18-wheeler, knocking her unconscious. Her best friend, driver Lori Piestewa, died of head trauma from the crash, and her first sergeant and two other men were shot.
Her foot, caught under the front seat, was crushed when the Iraqis pulled Lynch out. She was stripped of her military gear and beaten with a metal pipe. She suffered broken vertebrae in her back and fractures in her arm and her leg.
Some sympathetic Iraqis took her to a hospital, but she received no food or little fluid during her nine days in captivity, during which she was moved several times. She begged for an attempted leg amputation to be stopped and surgery was abandoned.
Lynch was left in an isolated house for several days, hearing nothing but an eerie silence during which she prayed for help. After being taken back to the hospital, she noticed the Iraqis were acting oddly and she soon heard American military vehicles. But she feared that they did not know she was there and might bomb the location.
However, Lynch soon heard English-speaking voices calling her name. The Iraqi men guarding her were ushered from the room, and a pararescue jumper from Special Forces told her, “We are Americans, and we are here to take you home.”
Lynch then played the video footage of her rescue, leaving the audience emotional and stunned. The then 19 year-old weighed only 76 pounds when she was rescued.
After her rescue by Special Forces on April 1, she was airlifted to Kuwait and later to Germany, where doctors repaired her back, right arm, and discovered her left femur had been replaced with an unsterilized, oversized rod from the 1940s which was infected.
After the rod was replaced, her smashed left tibia also needed a rod to repair the damage. Her crushed foot has required eight surgeries, with a ninth planned for later this year. The top of her head was shaved to repair a laceration and her cracked ribs were also treated.
Through nine days of starvation and thirst and the 22 surgeries during her recovery, Lynch persevered through it all, saying it has taken a lot of strength to come back physically, mentally, and emotionally from this experience.
When thinking about lying in that hospital bed alone in Iraq, Lynch realized if she could make it through her most desperate point, there was nothing that she cannot do.
Despite whatever challenges they are facing, Lynch urged the audience members to never give up and to keep striving against any obstacles standing in their paths.
“Find whatever is inside of you to keep pushing and persevering and look for another day in front of you because I promise you, it does get better.”
“It may seem things are at a standstill and you just can’t do it anymore, but you can. I promise you you can,” she added.
“Don’t give up when anything is trying to hold you back.”
2025 UPLIFT WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Cancer survivor and food disparity activist Hope Ostane-Baucom was awarded the 2025 Uplift Woman of the Year award, given to a remarkable woman in the community who is dedicated to uplifting others, providing guidance, and encouraging individuals to live their fullest lives while striving for greatness.
Ostane-Baucom started her mission to address food insecurity and food deserts in 2020 as she recovered from a double mastectomy in late 2019. She tended her small garden, which provided fresh food for her family, some to preserve, and some to share, as she healed physically and emotionally.
She then studied agriculture, earning an agribusiness degree. Now she uses her talents to help farmers become more efficient and productive and make local food available to the people of Iredell County.
Ostane-Baucom urged the audience members to find and use their gifts.
“Take a class, apply for funding, just do it. Have faith in yourself,” she said. “God gave you gifts to use!”
OTHER SPEAKERS
The Master of Ceremonies for the breakfast was Molly Grantham, former WBTV news anchor and motivational speaker. Grantham is a 4-time Emmy Award winning journalist, author of three books, mother of three young children, and founder of a pediatric non-profit network.
She also started the Bet on Yourself Summit, a masterclass on confidence-building and changing setbacks to stepping stone. This year’s event in April is already sold out.
Alicia Ibanez, physician assistant and COO at OptiMed Hospitalists, also provided valuable insights on achieving work-life balance as a single mother of three young children.
“We are expected to seamlessly juggle so many things without breaking a sweat, but we experience pressure and shame if we don’t,” she said.
Even though the unrealistic expectations and the pressures of juggling so much are exhausting, Ibanez told the audience that women are changing the world. “All are capable of making lasting impressions,” she said.
Ibanez urged the mostly female listeners to prioritize and set healthy boundaries to have maximum effectiveness in highly intense moments in both their personal lives and careers, using wellness strategies.
The first is to slow down, take a breath, stand in power, and then make the call for a situation.
“Then you will feel you are making the decision more objectively rather than acting on emotion or being reactive,” she explained.
She also asked them to think about how they were caring for themselves and the others around them. Getting clear about that and sharing that with friends is important.
Ibanez also said that the mission to be perfect eliminates the nuanced learning that comes with imperfection.
“It’s okay to ask for help, and it’s okay not to be able to do everything at one time.”
The mental exhaustion of juggling it all and the constant struggles of keeping up with everything are the unseen reality behind women’s facade of looking like they are making it all work.
She also urged rethinking priorities and shifting their mindsets from “having” to do tough things to “getting” to do those things.
Using protocols in medicine keeps medical professionals calm, focused, and present. In life, Ibanez advises using the same principals of proactive preparation. Even though people cannot anticipate every situation, they can embrace the inevitable challenges they face.
“The key is designing our lives to be ready. Just as we have backup systems in place for medical emergencies, we can create backup plans for our personal lives as well,” she said.
“It’s also really important to have people that will challenge us, who will call us out when we get into that crazy busy mode. This challenge network, at its best, can help us reveal that clear line of sight and ultimately laugh at the craziness.”
“Accept and embrace that it is about balance. You can do it all, and it is the sum of the parts that results in fulfillment. When you do that, you are controlling the needle rather than allowing the needle to control you.”
SPONSORS
Presented by Fora Dermatology and breakfast sponsor Randy Marion, the annual event celebrates women’s achievements and supports the Women’s Health Fund at Iredell Health System.
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