American POWs in the 2003 invasion of Iraq

The 2003 invasion of Iraq, which lasted from March 20 – May 1, 2003, resulted in a small number of American and Coalition POWs.

A majority of the prisoners of war were captured from the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company when a convoy of vehicles got lost and entered the Iraqi-held town of Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003. The 507th were a support company, and surrendered after all their weapons jammed. The following soldiers were captured by Iraqi forces:

When they surrendered, they feared the worst. Miller held out little hope for mercy. "I thought they were going to kill me," he said. "That was the first thing I asked when they captured me: 'Are you going to kill me?' They said no. . . . I still didn't believe them."

Soon after their capture, Jessica Lynch was taken to an Iraqi hospital due to her serious injuries. The other five POWs did not know about Lynch surviving until after they were released. After their capture, the five remaining members of the ambushed 507th would become famous as bloody and beaten. They were then interviewed by Iraq TV, and the footage was shown worldwide by Al Jazeera. In the interview, Private First Class Patrick Miller was asked why he came to Iraq; his reply was "I come to fix broke stuff." Asked if he came to shoot Iraqis, he answered, "No, I come to shoot only if I am shot at. They don't bother me, I don't bother them."

On March 24, they were joined by Chief Warrant Officers David Williams, 31, and Ronald Young Jr., 26, whose Apache chopper, from the 1-227 Helicopter Attack Battalion, had been shot down in central Iraq that day.

The prisoners were taken to Baghdad, where they were isolated in separate cells of a drab prison with concrete walls and a tin roof. As American troops got closer, the soldiers were shuffled from building to building. The Iraqi captors worked feverishly to stay one step ahead of the advancing units.

As it became clear that the war was over for the Iraqis, some of their captors approached a Marine unit from the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Delta Co., 3rd Platoon which was a part of Task Force Tripoli that had been pushing up toward Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown. A Marine battalion was sent to check on the intelligence and found the seven POWs with a confused Iraqi guard unit, whose officers had fled.

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