He is still missing.The troops also found ammunition, mortar rounds, maps, and a “terrain model” of the region in the basement of the compound – proof to commanders that the hospital was being used for military purposes. Pte Lynch was part of a supply convoy that took a wrong turn and came under attack on 23 March.Pictures shown the same day on Iraqi television indicated that a number of the members of the 507th Maintenance Company had been killed, their bodies lying on the ground in pools of blood.Five soldiers, including Pte Lynch were shown undergoing interrogation At least two of them were wounded. At the time, US commanders speculated openly that the Iraqis had executed some of the captured soldiers, although that remains to be determined.Such reports had a devastating effect on the families of the captured soldiers.A friend of the Lynch family, Gladys LaDeaux, told her local paper after Pte Lynch’s dramatic rescue: “You wonder, is she being abused? When you wake up, you think about her You wonder if she’s had water .. I had almost given up hope I thought she was gone.”. A dirty green canvas city has sprung up from nowhere in Iraq’s vast western desert in a matter of nine days.

Within its sandbank and barbed-wire ramparts pumps the heart of the American forces supply chain ­ LSA Viper. Every day, more are brought in from ships waiting in the Persian Gulf. This patch of desert, once the territory of goat herders, is now the home of Marine Air Group 29 from North Carolina.Helicopters circle the camp, landing and taking off with regularity. A Black Hawk, used for casualty evacuation, descends in a storm of sand to be greeted by a team of khaki ambulances.

Today, a British helicopter forward-arming and refuelling point is to be established so that the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps Lynx and Gazelles can operate more efficiently from the base during reconnaissance and attack missions.”We are the largest air base in Iraq right now,” Gunnery Sergeant Jeff Christie explained with the pumped-up confidence one would expect of a US Marine. It is his job to ensure that more than 300,000 gallons of fuel are fed into the J-FOB (Jalibah Forward Operating Base) war machine each day.Fifty thousand gallons of water and 18,000 MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) sit stacked for the men and women of the camp.In his southern drawl, Sgt Christie explains: “We have built this in less than a week It has been a lot of work and long days. The British will be welcome with open arms.”The scale of the operation is, in the words of one British officer, “awesome”. As far as the eye can see, giant containers lie side by side with hundreds of armoured vehicles and mountains of ammunition.

Row upon row of bulldozers line up next to columns of giant Humvee vehicles.Convoys 130 vehicles long kick up the foot-deep sand, sending waves of it throughout the camp as they make their way in and out of the main gate. Transporters carrying tractor-like building machinery and container lorries are interspersed with Humvees armed with machine guns ­ forming a 20-minute procession.Giant radar dishes circle incessantly near a landing strip where the imposing hulks of two CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters the size of articulated lorries sit waiting to take off ­ their rotors pounding a deafening beat “In the last eight days we have had 1,800 flights. We have eight Hueys, 16 combat attack Cobras and 12 CH-46s and 21 CH-53s for transporting cargo and troops,” Sgt Christie explained with pride. Asked about the Black Hawks in evidence, he said dismissively: “They’re army.” Near by, the shattered remains of a Huey provides a shocking reminder of an accident four nights ago, when a pilot became disorientated in the “goldfish bowl” of sand which surrounds it upon landing and take off.”The Huey came in to rearm but on take-off it went down and caught fire. Four people were killed and all ordnance exploded.”The younger guys are the ones who worry.