Jessica Lynch

“They used me to symbolize all this stuff. It's wrong. I don't know why they filmed it or why they say these things.”

“That wasn't me. I'm not a hero. I'm just a survivor.”

“I did not shoot, not a round, nothing. I went down praying to my knees. And that's the last I remember.”

“The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes, and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.”

“It hurts that they C.I.A.-ized it. They should have told the truth. I could have been a hero for other things.”

“I have the same nightmares, the visions of the people that were in my convoy, of the people that were killed.”

“It was not a heroic story. It's a story of a soldier who was injured and captured and who was taken care of by her captors.”

“I had the chance to come home, and so many others did not.”