Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Today, I want to salute the members of the 507th Maintenance Company. This is the company out of Fort Bliss in El Paso…”

“Today, I want to salute the members of the 507th Maintenance Company. This is the company out of Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, who really were the first to be captured, the first prisoners of war shown on Iraqi television. Some of them have now been recovered, but there are still five missing. The rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch was a moment of triumph but also sadness, as the celebration was tempered by the recovery of the remains of fallen soldiers who were later identified as her comrades in arms. General Renuart at CENTCOM described the rescue this way: A special ops soldier called to Private Lynch saying: Jessica Lynch, we're United States soldiers and we're here to protect you and take you home. . . . As he walked over to her bed, took his helmet off, she looked up to him and said: I'm an American soldier, too. General Renuart also described the recovery of the remains of the soldiers who had been killed because they were told by the same sources that there were remains of other soldiers on the ground outside the hospital where Jessica lay.”