Fate of Fort Bragg Soldier with PTSD in Hands of Army Board

UPDATE
Fort Bragg soldier guilty of misconduct; separation will allow health care
Fay Observer
By Greg Barnes Staff writer
October 9, 2015

A three-member board recommended Friday that Fort Bragg Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer be separated from the Army on a general discharge under honorable conditions.

The board agreed that Eisenhauer was guilty of misconduct but bucked Fort Bragg's desire that he be separated from service under an other-than-honorable discharge.

The recommendation means that Eisenhauer, who doctors say suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, will one day become eligible for health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"This has made me proud of the Army today," Eisenhauer's father, Mark, said moments after the board announced its recommendation. "They got the truth out. This was what was important to us."
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Army board deliberating over fate of Fort Bragg soldier, Joshua Eisenhauer 
FayObserver
By Greg Barnes Staff writer
Posted: Thursday, October 8, 2015

Conormon, along with lawyer Mark Waple, is fighting for the Army to provide Eisenhauer medical care for the rest of his life. They contend that Eisenhauer was so wracked by PTSD that he suffered a flashback and thought he was shooting at Afghan insurgents - not at police and firefighters - from his Austin Creek apartment in west Fayetteville.

Undated photo of Joshua Eisenhauer

A three-member board began the process Thursday of deciding whether to separate Fort Bragg Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer from the Army.

Eisenhauer was sentenced Aug. 6 in Cumberland County Superior Court to between 10 and 18 years in prison for shooting at Fayetteville police and firefighters from his apartment on Jan. 12, 2012.

Now the separation board is tasked with deciding whether Eisenhauer is guilty of misconduct, whether he should be separated from the Army, and, if so, under what grade of service.

The panel is expected to reach those findings today and then make a recommendation to the commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg.

Eisenhauer, who enlisted in 2005 after a conviction for resisting arrest near his home in Fort Worth, Texas, twice deployed to Afghanistan - in 2007-08 and 2009-10.

Soldiers who were with Eisenhauer on his first deployment said they experienced hundreds of firefights, sometimes as many as two or three a day.

Their job as a theater task force in Helmand province and other areas of Afghanistan was to move toward "the sounds of the guns," Staff Sgt. John Drollinger said.

Drollinger said the task force rooted out enemy insurgents, often by knocking down doors and killing them. At times, he and other soldiers said, their unit was forced to fight without sleep in stretches that lasted for days.

Drollinger and other soldiers who testified all used similar words to describe Eisenhauer: loyal, trustworthy, unwavering, honorable and dedicated.
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