ELIZABETH, W.Va., July 22 (UPI) -- Yellow bows, from 1,600 yards of donated lawn chair material, greeted former prisoner-of-war Jessica Lynch as she returned to her West Virginia home.
Looking pale and drawn, the 20-year-old Army private received a hero's welcome as she made her way to Palestine, W.V.
"I am proud to be in the U.S. Army. I am proud to have served ...," Lynch said, her voice strong despite the multiple injuries from which she still is recovering.
Hundreds of journalists were at the county seat to report Lynch's first public words since her ordeal.
She remained seated in a wheelchair during the ceremony, although she is able to walk with the aid of a walker.
When Lynch was a girl, she liked to tell her grandmother that some day she would be famous.
"She would say, 'Wirt County will know Jessi Lynch,'" Wyonema Lynch told NBC-17.
