Talk:United States prisoners of war in the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Untitled
Was seven the final number of American POWs in the war? -- Esemono 13:59, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Ongoing
Are there any POWs captured by the insurgency? -- Esemono 13:59, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Not at all clear what happened
The following sentence isn't gramatical, is poorly written, and confusing: "From their unit nine soldiers in the company were captured in the ambush and following soldiers surrendered to Iraqi forces:" Just how many were captured? Was the whole company ambushed, or a major portion of it, or a small portion of it? How many of the ambushed group were killed outright, how many subsequently died of wounds, or injuries (due to crashed vehicles), how many escaped (if any)? Again how many were captured? How did Jessica Lynch, alone of the group become such a hero (the greatest heroine since Joan of Arc)? After their capture how were they treated? Were any of them tortured? Was (as has been claimed) Jessica Lynch anally sodomized? What is the story behind the instant legendary heroism of Jessica Lynch as depicted and claimed in major media outlets. The "heroic" liberation of Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital was falsly portrayed and claimed by the U.S. media, and was in fact practically staged (according to a story in "The Guardian"). There are two stories here that should be told: 1) what really happened; and, 2) what the media in the U.S. hyped, concocted, and covered up! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.212.95.205 (talk) 04:53, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

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The 507th
"The 507th were a support company, and surrendered after all their weapons jammed." - This is highly doubtful.

If the weapons ran out of ammunition because they were a support company and hence had less ammunition issued then perhaps it should just state that. It is virtually impossible that all weapons of an entire support company '"jammed" at the same time.

It is plausible, however, that after a short battle they all ran out of ammunition.Music man214 (talk) 03:44, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

A number of points need to be made here: 1) Per infantry standards, your personal weapon should be cleaned every day. The infantry standard is the standard for all MOS's/branches.  These clowns didn't know that.  They didn't know shit.  Compounding this huge handicap is a harsh desert environment, slack leadership all around (maintaining standards, quality weapons qual, familiarization for machine guns, a possible lack of weapon cleaning kits), and MOS training that makes them think of their M-16 as an enemy, and not a friend, then yes, every weapon will jam every time. 2) Dirt in the magazine will cause jams. The proper storage of a soldiers magazine is in his/her ammo storage pouch on the LBE. Locking a magazine into an M-16 for even a short period of time can cause dirt to seep into it. Even properly stored, soldiers should check their magazines at least once a day for dirt. Doing the job right requires removing all the rounds, wiping them if needed, then tapping the empty magazine to remove all possible debris. Even in a non desert environment this happens. Every 11B knows the routine. 3) As a maintenance company, all weapons stored in the vault were marginally cleaned. Gunk and rust deposits would severely damage them.  All machine guns and crew served weapons (50 cal) were never fired in recent memory (at least a year, probably a few years, maybe never), and never cleaned, causing them to dry out and have pitted barrels.  If the 507th was given prepositioned equipment, hopefully they were given new weapons.  But I think there is no way that happened.  Per SOP, the weapons would have been loaded onto a 5 ton, and shipped on another plane. 4) In the field, the best thing that could ever happen with these units is to have weapons familiarization firing on a range, and then be instructed on the above things. Unfortunately, every supply & service company and division rear unit is embarrassingly inept when it comes to weapons training, to a soldier. Refresher training and help could have saved many lives. 5) If you read about the history of the M-16, you will find the same exact problems with jams in Vietnam as you did in Iraq. It was made poorly for harsh environments (too many parts that are too small, hard to clean, easy to lose, and hard to protect). The infantry overcomes this with super maintenance.  The other combat arms branches, in addition to the aforementioned, don't have the discipline.Music man214 (talk) 03:44, 8 October 2017 (UTC)