This article was originally published on the March Forward! website. March Forward! is in the forefront of the movement to hold the
military accountable for its criminally negligent mental health care
treatment. This movement is rapidly growing and gaining momentum. Please
read this statement, sign the petition demanding justice for SSG Jared
Hagemann and forward it widely.
Staff
Sergeant Jared Hagemann, an Army Ranger in the 2nd Battalion, 75th
Ranger Regiment at Ft. Lewis, Wash., was found on June 28 at a training
area on base with a gunshot wound to the head. He was suffering from
severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and had been trying desperately to
avoid a pending deployment to Afghanistan—what would be his 9th combat
tour. He was 26-years-old, with a wife and two young children.
In
2005, SSG Hagemann came home from his first combat tour with both
psychological trauma and reservations about the war he had just been a
part of.
His wife, Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, said that when he
returned from that first tour: “He was quiet, and wouldn’t look people
in the eye. He wanted to remain hidden; he didn’t want to be around
people.”
He was later diagnosed with a so-called “mood adjustment disorder,” then finally correctly diagnosed with PTSD.
SSG
Hagemann had psychological trauma after that first deployment. But in
the U.S. military, that does not exempt you from deploying to combat
again. So, SSG Hagemann went on another tour, and then another, and then
another, and another, and another, and yet another combat tour.
After seven grueling tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, SSG Hagemann had enough.
His
opposition to deploying was two-fold. First, he was crippled by the
effects of PTSD. “He couldn’t even go to the grocery store with me,”
said Ashley. “He would try, and then have to run back to the car and
wait there.”
Second, the reality on the ground in Iraq and
Afghanistan was undeniable to SSG Hagemann. He had turned against the
wars, politically. “He told me that the politicians were just lying
about why we were there, that the wars were just hurting innocent
people,” said Ashley.
SSG Hagemann was determined to not deploy
again. But in the U.S. military, there is a standard response for trying
to receive help for PTSD.
“People mocked him. They judged him,”
said Ashley. “They told him to ‘man up. Take a sleeping pill. You’re
fine. It’s all in your head.’”
SSG Hagemann was assigned to tasks
and duties reserved for “troublemakers.” As for his PTSD symptoms, he
was ordered to attend an “anger management” class. This was the extent
of the treatment he received.
The Army’s only ‘option’
He
was offered one option—2/75 Ranger Regiment said that if he just went
on one more combat tour, he could be done and released to attend
college. SSG Hagemann re-enlisted because of this deal, and he agreed to
one final tour.
However, upon returning home, his company
commander told him that the deal was invalid. He was to deploy a ninth
time, and likely more afterward.
Ranger Regiment, a branch of
U.S. Army Special Operations, is officially a “voluntary” unit. “But
they wouldn’t let him leave,” said Ashley. “He wanted out but they
wouldn’t let him.”
SSG Hagemann’s deployment was rapidly approaching—he had gone
through all the proper channels, from seeing psychologists to
re-enlisting with the promise of being non-deployable, but was rejected
at every turn. “By June of this year, he finally had
enough,” recalls Ashley, “He told me, ‘I’m not going, no matter what.
I’m not going.’”
According to Ashley, SSG Hagemann felt
he had exhausted every possible option. After dutifully serving the
orders of the U.S. government, spending years of his life at war, SSG
Hagemann got relief for his debilitating PTSD the only way he thought he
could—by shooting himself in the head, alone in the bushes on Ft. Lewis.
“The only thing he
had control of was how he ended his own life. For that I blame his
chain of command.”
But 2/75 Ranger Regiment was not done making a
mockery of SSG Hagemann’s life. They refused to give him a memorial
service, standard honors for any service member who dies, regardless of
the nature of their death.
The military’s explanation for
denying him a memorial: “They told me they didn’t want it to attract
media attention,” reported Ashley.
Well, contrary to the wishes
of 2/75 Ranger Regiment, SSG Hagemann is attracting quite a bit of
media attention. There is now a campaign to hold accountable those
responsible, and enact sweeping changes throughout the entire failed
system. Sign the petition in support of the campaign.
Fighting for change
The
case of SSG Hagemann was first exposed by March Forward! in early
August, as we organized a public speak-out at Ft. Lewis to denounce the
Army’s criminal negligence regarding soldiers with PTSD
March
Forward! had been rallying around the case of Sgt. Derrick Kirkland,
another soldier at Ft. Lewis who committed suicide after being publicly
humiliated and completely neglected by mental health officials. Sgt.
Kirkland was rated a “low risk for suicide” after three documented
attempts.
Sgt. Kirkland’s mother, Mary Corkhill-Kirkland, had
just flown to Ft. Lewis to join active-duty soldiers and veterans,
including friends of Sgt. Kirkland, to increase the public pressure on
the Ft. Lewis command. One of the flyers made it into Ashley’s hands,
and she contacted us and joined the speak out.
Because of the
media attention already generated around our work in the area, March
Forward! was able to shine a spotlight on the case of SSG Hagemann,
which quickly became a national story.
Now,
Ashley has joined with Mary Corkhill-Kirkland, and veterans and
active-duty troops in March Forward! in the struggle to drastically
change the mental health system within the military, and to end the root
cause of the PTSD crisis: the reckless orders of Washington to send
young people to fight endlessly in two unpopular wars in which we have
no reason to fight.
In Ashley’s own words, “My husband wanted change. That’s why I’m fighting now.”
Ashley
has heroically stood up, as have many other veterans and military
families. But we need others to stand with us. Those who have had
similar experiences, or know someone who has, should join us in exposing
the military’s unwillingess to address the suicide epidemic in any
meaningful way—and fight with us to change it.
As we plan many
actions in the months ahead to expose the military’s crimes and force
real change, we will need your help and support. It is the unified
action of active-duty troops, veterans, military families and supporters
who have the power to change the military’s status quo.
No more criminal negligence! No more endless wars!
Sign the petition to demand justice for SSG Jared Hagemann and circulate this statement widely. Help build the movement!
