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Using the Symbolic Interaction perspective, I examine media coverage of the ambush on the 507th Maintenance Ordinance Company, the ambush in which Jessica Lynch was taken prisoner during the United States? War with Iraq in the spring of 2003. I perform a qualitative content analysis of 84 New York Times articles to determine why Jessica Lynch became an enduring symbol of the American Solider and why her colleagues in the 507th did not receive nearly the attention she did. I hypothesize that her identity characteristics: Her race, gender, class, age, her family characteristics to name a few, made her a desirable symbol for the war effort overall, however I do find that more pragmatic variables intervene in a seemingly simple cause-and-effect dynamic. Her family?s willingness to speak with the media and the nature of her rescue also provided for sensationalistic journalism, consistent with Fine and White?s (2002) theory of the human-interest narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]