Jessica Lynch, former private first class, is going to teach soon.

Jessica Lynch as a Soldier

Former Private First Class (PFC) in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps Jessica Dawn Lynch is about to get a teaching degree. Lynch, who was 19 at the time of the Iraq invasion, will get her education degree from West Virginia University on Friday. She completed her training as a student teacher at an elementary school in Wirt County, West Virginia, the same one she attended as a child.

Miss Lynch, who spent nine days as a prisoner of war, still suffers from leg injuries sustained in Iraq. She said: "It's tough to walk but I look at it as at least I'm walking. At least I have my legs. They may not work. I have no feeling in the left one. But it's attached, at least. At least I'm alive."

Miss Lynch, now a 28-year-old mother, was captured along with five others after her 507th Maintenance Company unit took a wrong turn and came under attack in Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003. Eleven of her fellow soldiers died. Following her rescue the US government publicised an exaggerated version of events which made the teenager seem more heroic and rallied public support for the war. She has repeatedly worked to set the record straight and in 2007 told Congress: "The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate lies."

Mother and Would be teacher LYNCH