The Guardian, my most trusted news source: Navigational error 'led Lynch . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,995786,00.html Navigational error 'led Lynch unit into ambush' Agencies Thursday July 10, 2003 Private Jessica Lynch, the US soldier rescued by a special forces from an Iraqi hospital, was injured in a rocket attack after the convoy she was travelling with took the wrong route, it was claimed today. A US army report reconstructing the chaotic events of March 23 - the third day of the war - said an officer's unexplained navigational error led the US army's 507th Maintenance Corp into an ambush in southern Iraq that ended in the deaths of 11 soldiers and the capture of six. Private Lynch received numerous injuries - and four comrades riding with her were killed - after their Humvee utility vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into another vehicle in their convoy at a speed of roughly 45mph, officials said. The report assigns no individual blame but it makes clear that trouble began when the unit's commander, Captain Troy King, took the wrong route. Capt King, who survived the ambush, was supposed to have taken a road, code named Route Jackson, that bypassed the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriyah as the 507th advanced north in the early morning hours of March 23. Instead, for reasons that are not explained in the report, Capt King took a road into Nassiriyah, which was still under Iraqi military control. On its initial pass through Nassiriyah the 507th did not encounter enemy fire, but when Capt King realised that he had come off his intended route he decided to retrace the convoy's path, and they then began to receive sporadic small arms fire. The report said that the unprecedented speed of the US ground advance from assault positions in northern Kuwait was a contributing factor because it overextended the 507th support convoy's communications. But "human error further contributed to the situation through a single navigational error that placed these troops in the presence of an adaptive enemy", it added. A series of malfunctions followed, including breakdowns of vehicles that split the convoy into smaller groups. Some vehicles got stuck in the sand, batteries for some radios went dead, at least one vehicle ran out of fuel and the 507th's only 50-calibre machine gun malfunctioned. The report suggested the 507th - comprising mechanics, cooks and other support personnel - had not correctly maintained their guns while on the move through the dusty desert conditions. Of 33 people and 18 vehicles ambushed, only 16 soldiers in eight vehicles got away, the report said. Two soldiers in the convoy were from the 3rd Forward Support Battalion and are among the 11 killed. One of the soldiers who survived the ordeal, Sergeant Curtis Campbell, applauded his fellow soldiers' bravery. "Many of these guys fought with courage and distinction," he said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. "A lot of these guys' stories haven't been told in their entirety. They made the ultimate sacrifice." Sgt Campbell was shot in the shoulder while trying to return fire.