The father of one of the rescued soldiers, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young, told CNN that they recognized their son in video shown on the network, and were surprised by how well he looked.

The parents of Young, one of two Apache helicopter pilots shot down over Iraq, said a Pentagon representative gave them the official confirmation about a half-hour later at their home in Lithia Springs, Georgia.

"I'm ecstatic," said his father Ronald Young Sr.

"He looked like he grew a few whiskers and lost a little weight," but his son seemed otherwise unchanged by his ordeal.

"He's walking out of there like it's just another day," Young told the network.

"The main thing to me is knowing he's all right," Young said. "It's a relief. You just don't know how much it is. It's almost like Christmas, New Year's and everything all rolled into one."

President George W. Bush on Sunday said "I'm really pleased" at the rescue of seven US soldiers who were believed to have been taken prisoner in Iraq.

"We still have missing in action in Iraq, we will continue to look for them," he told reporters on the White House lawn.

General Tommy Franks earlier told US media that the missing US prisoners apparently had been abandoned by retreating Iraqi military, and were reportedly picked up on a roadside near Samarrah, a town north of Baghdad, as the marines moved north toward Tikrit.

Young's relatives said they also recognized Chief Warrant Officer David Williams, who was in the helicopter with Young. They said Williams' wife told them she also saw him.

Joel Hernandez told CNN that the army had notified his family that his older brother Edgar of the 507th Maintenance Company had been rescued, and that the family had seen images of the rescue on television at their Texas home.

"I didn't know it was going to happen today, but I had that big feeling in my heart," Joel Hernandez said.

"I was so happy, I just told my mom, you see, I told you he was going to come back. You just can't really explain the feeling."

The families of other missing service members, James Riley, Shoshana Johnson and Joseph Hudson -- all members of the 507th Maintenance Company -- said they also had received official word Sunday that their relatives had been freed.

In Alamagordo, New Mexico, Anecita Hudson told CNN that US officials have confirmed her son's rescue.

"The army ... let me know my Joseph is safe," she said.

Jessica Lynch, the teenaged US private rescued from her Iraqi captors in a daring commando raid, was in satisfactory condition one day after returning to the United States, hospital officials said Sunday.

"Jessica Lynch remains in satisfactory condition at Walter Reed Medical Center," the hospital said in a statement.

She arrived from the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany where she was treated for two broken legs, her right arm, leg and ankle, as well as head and spinal injuries.

The small-town girl from West Virginia who joined the army to earn money for college has become something of national hero in the United States.

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