Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medals during a ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the hospital said in a statement.

She is to be released early Tuesday and flown by military helicopter to Parkersburg, West Virginia, the first stop on a trip back to her nearby hometown of Palestine.

Lynch, 19, a mechanic with the 507th Maintenance Company, was rescued April 1 from an Iraqi-held hospital in the southern town of Nasiriyah where she had been held for more than a week.

She was to be honored in a ceremony in the town of Elizabeth, close to her hometown of Palestine, said Jodi Omear, a spokeswoman for West Virginia Governor Bob Wise.

Elizabeth was chosen because it was better equipped than Palestine to handle the hundreds of news reporters that have traveled to cover the story, Omear said.

Lynch was expected to arrive in Elizabeth at 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) and read a statement to reporters, but take no questions, before heading for Palestine, Omear said.

According to initial news reports, Lynch fiercely fought Iraqi soldiers after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds when her convoy of supply trucks was ambushed March 23 after taking a wrong turn, killing 11 of the 33 soldiers. Those reports later proved to be wrong.

An official report released earlier this month revealed Lynch was injured when the speeding Humvee she was traveling in crashed into the back of a five-tonne Army truck.

Lynch reportedly has no memory of the incident.

WAR.WIRE