Military Wives Fight Army to Help Husbands

Military Wives Fight Army to Help Husbands
by Daniel Zwerdling
Listen Now

All Things Considered, May 16, 2008 · There's a formidable group of warriors out there — and they're fighting America's military. Spouses of troops who have come back from the war with serious mental health problems have made it their mission to force the military to give the troops the help they need.

In the process, they've transformed themselves from "the silent ranks," as the military traditionally calls wives, into vocal and effective activists.

Tammie LeCompte is among them. When her husband, Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte, came back to Fort Carson, Colo., after two tours in Iraq, he was a different man — angry, withdrawn and isolated. In 2007, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he eventually became so depressed and unable to function that doctors feared he might die.

So when Tammie LeCompte saw that the Army was not giving her husband intensive treatment — and, worse, his commanders were punishing him for not doing his job — she launched a campaign against the Army that eventually caught the ear of Congress. Today, doctors say that Tammie LeCompte's battle may have saved her husband's life.

Carissa Picard, founder of a national group called Military Spouses for Change, has never met Tammie LeCompte, but she recently launched a Web site specifically to teach spouses how to pressure the military to give proper care to returning troops with health problems. Picard says Tammie's own battle reflects how wives across the country have transformed themselves into advocates in order to save their own husbands.

"When I feel like the well-being of my husband or my family is at stake, that taps into a very fundamental place for women," says Picard, who is married to an Army helicopter pilot. "That's like a Mama Bear place. We're fighting to protect the people that we love."
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There are many groups I am associated with because of the work I do on PTSD. Military Spouses for Change is one of them. I am proud to be affiliated with them and feel privileged to know Carissa Picard as well as call her friend. She has worked tirelessly for the sake of other military spouses and those they love. Changes will happen because of people like her and all the others in Military Spouses for Change, because they care enough to do far more than just get angry at what is happening. They are trying to find solutions.

As I listened to the story of the LeCompte's, my mind traveled back to when I had to fight for my own husband. You can read our story from this blog. For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle, can be opened directly from this blog on the right side bar. It proves times have not changed much for those we send to risk their lives. There are however two big differences between then and now. Groups like Military Spouses for Change did not exist and the net was in its infancy. This allowed reporters to ignore the problems they faced.

In the 80's and 90's, finding the information on PTSD was like trying to pluck eyebrows without a mirror, messy and painful. The reports were buried in library files on microfilm. Local newspapers, like the Daily Item, Salem Evening News and Boston papers like the Herald and the Globe, would do an occasional piece on the suffering of Vietnam veterans, but most of the time the reports surfaced in the obituary and crime sections.

When I called the reporters of these papers, they were not interested. One reporter told me our story sounded like sour grapes. He couldn't believe any of what we were going through was real. He couldn't believe they were making this Vietnam Veteran pay for his medical care and taking our tax refund to pay for it when we could not. The veterans themselves were suffering in silence as their marriages fell apart, they lost jobs as PTSD ate away at them, became homeless abandoned by family and friends and their suicide numbers climbed ever higher. Over they years, I've seen and heard it all.

As bad as PTSD seems right now, I must warn all the readers, this is just the beginning of what is coming. No one was listening back then but they are listening now. In this, find hope that the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will not meet the same fate the Vietnam Veterans did.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
International Fellowship of Chaplains

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"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington