With The Troops: Saving Private Jessica

The go-ahead came on the evening of April 1. As Marines staged a diversionary attack, besieging nearby Iraqi irregulars, Army Rangers set up a perimeter around the hospital. It was a moonless night, but the stars were bright enough to guide the Navy SEALs who slipped into the hospital. Led to her room by a doctor on duty, the SEALs opened the door and asked for Jessica Lynch. At first, she was silent, a sheet pulled tightly over her head. "We're U.S. soldiers," said one of the SEALs. "We're here to protect you and take you home." She responded, "I'm an American soldier too." As they rushed her out to a nearby helicopter, Lynch squeezed the hand of an Army Ranger and said, "Don't let anyone leave me." All the while, planes outfitted with special communications gear circled overhead, allowing a video feed of the events to be broadcast to the military's top brass in Qatar, who were able to watch the rescue in real time.

"It worked perfectly. It was like Black Hawk Down, except nothing went wrong," says Colonel Harry Warren, who heads a military hospital that took part in the mission. Indeed, no one was giddier than Lynch's family and the residents of Palestine, who shouted the good news through the streets and began instantly posting WELCOME HOME signs on the highway leading into town. But the national celebration was tempered on Saturday when the Pentagon identified the remains of nine of her compatriots from the 507th who were found in shallow graves near the hospital where Lynch was rescued. "Of course there is a feeling of satisfaction when you get one soldier back," Centcom spokesman Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told TIME in an interview last week, "but it is a temporary satisfaction." Even at its most fleeting, the feeling was hard to let go. --Reported by Brian Bennett/Tallil, Sally B. Donnelly/Doha and Marc Hequet/Palestine, with other bureaus