7 Rescued U.S. POWs Arrive in Germany

Seven American prisoners of war who were rescued in Iraq arrived here for medical examinations Wednesday, with a smiling Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson being carried on a stretcher from a C-141 transport plane.

The other six, dressed in fatigues, walked down the aircraft’s rear ramp, two of them shaking hands with air base workers and three waving at reporters who waited about 50 yards away.

Johnson, whose foot was injured by gunfire during the ambush that led to most of the captures, was greeted by applause from a group of about 20 air base workers.

The seven boarded a blue bus for the trip to the nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

Five of the seven were comrades of ex-POW Jessica Lynch from the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company; the other two were freed Apache helicopter pilots from the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment.

No one in the group was expected to stay long at Landstuhl. Also wounded among the group was Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas, who was shot in the elbow.

The plane that brought them also carried 41 other injured service personnel.

Whether the seven former POWs will return to the U.S. together depends on their medical conditions, said Marie Shaw, a spokeswoman at Landstuhl.

Besides Johnson and Hernandez, the freed members of the 507th are Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M.; Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, of Park City, Kan.; and Sgt. James Riley, 31, of Pennsauken, N.J.

The freed pilots are Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla., and Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Springs, Ga.