"I believe that Jessica and that other fellow and many others in this incident ( especially the dead ) deserve hero status, I just wish they(The Government) didn't feel they had make up a tabloid version of the story to keep America in the cheerleader section."

I completely agree with you that the military (wrongly) inflated her story for effect, but their assumption from a purely PR standpoint was obviously correct.  That is that Lynch was a victim of the war and look at all the attention/sympathy the story garnered because of that fact. Most people don't seem to care about the other heroes (including you apparently?) unless they are dead or victimized. Even she admits that much of the story was wrong, which is why she should avoid any more publicity if possible and turn down all the lucrative deals...iow, she should just put this story to rest.

What about all the other heroes? Are they any less deserving just because they weren't raped, killed or tortured?  Here's a good story about one such anonymous young man that might answer that question -> http://www.warbirdforum.com/heroes.htm