LYNCH (CONT)

Another eight died in the ensuing fighting. Miss Lynch said she later woke up in hospital. "When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move. I could not call for help. I could not fight," she said.

"The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans."
On April 1, US troops came for her. "A soldier came into the room. He tore the American flag from his uniform, and he

handed it to me in my hand and he told me, 'We're American soldiers, and we're here to take you home'. And I looked at him and I said, 'Yes, I'm an American soldier, too'."

"I had the good fortune to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like Pat Tillman, did not have that opportunity," she added.

"I'm still confused as to why they chose to lie and try to make me a legend when the real heroes were my fellow soldiers that day."

Pat Tillman, 27, became a national hero after he gave up a lucrative contract with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals to join the US Army and was killed during an ambush in an Afghan mountain pass three years ago.

Tillman, a member of the army's elite Rangers force, was awarded the Silver Star, the military's thirdhighest combat decoration, after the Pentagon said he was killed leading a counter-attack.
The story was revealed as bogus after pressure from Tillman's family. In reality he died as a result of friendly fire.

His brother Kevin - who also joined up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and was in a convoy behind his brother - rejected army claims that the confusion arose because of the fog of war.

He said the Pentagon version was "utter fiction" and charged the military with "intentional falsehoods that meet the legal definition for fraud".

"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," he added.

The committee's Democrat chairman Henry Waxman said: "The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth. That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."

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