Ex-POW Lynch to come home next week
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Pfc. Jessica Lynch was wounded in the attack on a 507th Maintenance Company convoy. Her rescue from an Iraqi hospital was videotaped.
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CNN's Barbara Starr on the Pentagon's report on the ambush near Nasiriya, Iraq.
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SPECIAL REPORT
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the former Iraqi prisoner of war, plans to speak briefly to reporters for the first time next week and ride in a military motorcade in West Virginia upon her release from the hospital, a family spokesman said.
Lynch is expected to be released July 22 from Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington and will be flown by military helicopter to an undisclosed location in West Virginia, spokesman Randy Coleman said. She then will speak to reporters but does not plan to answer questions.
The 20-year-old, who can walk with a walker and is trying to use crutches, faces a lengthy rehabilitation from injuries she suffered in an ambush in Iraq in March, Coleman said.
"She can't stand. She doesn't have enough feeling in her feet to stand," he said.
"She had three breaks in her left leg, multiple breaks in her right foot," Coleman said. "... There was a fractured disc, which has caused obviously numerous problems. She doesn't have feeling all over."
Coleman said it was his understanding that "she's taking the initial steps in her military discharge."
He said Lynch also has a broken upper right arm and lacerations on her head.
Lynch was one of six soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company who were captured March 23 after a 90-minute firefight with Iraqi forces.
Lynch's convoy was ambushed near Nasiriya when it took a wrong turn. Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed. U.S. forces later rescued Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. (Details of Lynch's capture)
After talking to the press next week upon her release, Lynch is expected to ride through Elizabeth, West Virginia, in a motorcade.
