Wife’s persistence helps save Private Ryan

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.”

In 2003, Ryan LeCompte completed his first tour in Iraq. But the Thunder Squadron soldier is no longer the “unstoppable force,” once praised by his commanders.

He sought medical attention within four months of returning to Fort Carson after his second tour in 2006.

Tammie LeCompte took up her husband’s battle once military commanders started to punish him for what they called misconduct, busting him down in rank from specialist to private.

In 2007, they started paperwork to discharge him from the Army. But his wife’s outspokenness made a difference.

On May 15, Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commanding general at Fort Carson, signed a memorandum acknowledging Ryan’s diagnoses of “mental health problems due to a traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder from two tours in Iraq.”

The general restored Ryan LeCompte’s rank to specialist, gave him back pay and agreed to remove the soldier’s Article 15 punishments from his military record.

The final step to his recovery will be full medical discharge, including all military benefits.

The LeCompte family is waiting for the Army to approve his medical discharge packet, in which the Veterans Administration is calling for 100 percent disability pay.

“I’m ready for things to stop, for them to make their decision, whatever it’s going to be, so we can move forward,” said Tammie LeCompte from the couple’s home in South Dakota, her voice tinged with weariness and exasperation.

Medical reports note her husband as “being extremely somnolent, falling asleep when not actively engaged.”

Encino, Calif., film producer Ronnie Clemmer described the LeComptes’ military saga as “precious cargo,” a narrative he aims to turn into a feature length film.

The story is filled with “steps and missteps, progress and regress, triumphs and failures,” he said. “Not giving up in the face of failure.”

He also assigned Tammie LeCompte a hero’s status for helping her husband, who is “unable to help himself at that moment. He’s a returning hero who is now incapacitated.”

Last December, Ryan LeCompte was admitted to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

A report from the four-month medical evaluation described a patient suffering from post-combat anxiety, depression and memory deficits — he was “near non-communicative” and “required constant attending for daily activities from his spouse.”

Maj. Christopher Lange of Walter Reed said a “prominent theme” and concern of the patient was his diminished role as father and husband. When doctors told him his war symptoms might contribute to his feelings of inadequacy, he cried.

He told the doctors: “Yes … but if I sleep, I don’t have to worry about yelling at them.”

The soldier was told if he continued to sleep, it would likely prevent him from connecting to his wife and kids.

He cried more.

“No matter … they do not have to get yelled at anymore,” he said.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/08/25/automotive_top/montana/c01082507_04.txt” target=”_blank”>Click here to read an earlier story about Ryan LeCompte.
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SALUTE to the perserverance of Mrs. Lecompte

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