His war but her battle, when husband came home

Wife’s persistence helps save Private Ryan
By JODI RAVE - 08/22/08
As an active duty soldier, Ryan LeCompte spends most of his days sleeping at his home on the Lower Brule Reservation in South Dakota.

“He’s not the same kid who left,” said Orville “Red” Langdeau, a Lakota and uncle to the war-injured LeCompte. “He’s different. He came back damaged.”

LeCompte, who was an Army scout with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Fort Carson, Colo., served two tours in Iraq before coming home physically and mentally wounded after participating in more than 160 combat missions.

He is now among the thousands of military men and women suffering from traumatic brain injuries and post traumatic stress disorder after performing their military duties of war.

Since returning to their home units, soldiers like LeCompte have faced new dangers — dishonorable discharges and the loss of all military benefits. Mistreatment of Fort Carson soldiers, in particular, has been the subject of several federal investigations.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., is among a group of Congressmen and their staffs working to help soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. They have met with Tammie LeCompte, Ryan’s wife.

They’ve since been “pushing on the bureaucracy and the leadership at Fort Carson and the Pentagon to help the family,” said Shana Marchio, Bond’s communications director.

After LeCompte’s military commanders failed to acknowledge his war injuries, Tammie LeCompte picked up her own weapons — faith and perseverance.

“Tammie was the most instrumental person in making sure Ryan got the care he needed,” said Marchio.

“She’s really a fighter. She refused to give in and accept the poor treatment her husband was getting.”
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http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/08/22/top/70st_080822_privateryan.txt

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to fight for the men and women who come home from combat wounded, but this is far from a perfect world or nation. People tend to just assume the government is doing the right thing when it comes to taking care of our obligations to our veterans. The truth is far from that.

The DOD will end up giving a dishonorable discharge under personality disorders instead of PTSD because the soldier was caught drinking or doing drugs to mask the problems of PTSD, which is called "self medicating" often misdiagnosed as addiction. They will say the soldier is a discipline problem and not take a look at what the history of that soldier has been before PTSD began to change them.

When people working for the VA feel they need to defend the VA and say that the claims are up to the veteran to prove, they are usually under the impression the veteran has to be trying to get something for nothing if the claim is denied. This happens all time. What they fail to see is that legitimate claims are often turned down for reasons that have nothing to do with what doctors say, what the veteran went through or what the wound is. Often it's a mistake on the claim itself or in the way the claims processors reads it.

The people turning down claims or doing the misdiagnosing are not evil and they do not do this on purpose, but they do it because of what they think. Some have no clue what PTSD is or does to a person. Believe it or not, there are still some psychologist and social workers who know nothing about PTSD. Most of the time it's limited knowledge and in this case, it's dangerous. Not only do the veterans suffer but their families and communities as well. With a clear, physical wound and a claim denied, the veteran and the family suffer financially and under stress they should not have to go through. When it's PTSD, it's financial because they cannot work, stressful because they have the extra burden of lost income piled onto the emotional stress topped off with untreated wounds and lost time. This effects the entire community.

There is the self medicating problem causing drunk driving. Drug use. Domestic violence. This involves the police departments. The stress involves health care and emergency room visits. Some try to go into rehab to stop drinking or doing drugs, by choice or by court order, often without the insurance to pay for it and the VA won't cover anything for a "non-service connected" condition. Until a claim is approved it's considered "non-service connected" and is regarded as no fault of the government. The veteran and their families are on their own.

The problem with rehabs is that they do not work if they are treating an "addiction" and the veteran is self medicating. It can't work if the problem causing the drinking or drug use is left untreated.

There was a report posted here yesterday that claims are taking 185 days to process. Last year it was 177 days and 657 days for an appeal to be processed. During that time, it's not just a matter of no income but no treatment as well. It's hard enough to get them into treatment in the first place but when the government is telling them what's wrong with them is not the obligation of the government to take care of, it's just one more insult on top of injury.

The spouse ends up having to fight for the one who went to war. Fight to hold their family together and find the strength and the hope to keep going. None of this should happen. It happened to us with a six year battle. It happened to other families with longer battles. It's still happening with some going through all of this even longer.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com"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