A military widow from Yelm who contends the Army is not providing enough care for soldiers returning from combat confronted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to "vent" her feelings — and got escorted out of the building where he was holding a book signing.
Ashley Joppa-Hagemann's husband, Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan for a ninth time this month. He had been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder many years ago and Joppa-Hagemann said that although they had asked for help, he never received any. On June 28, he committed suicide. The couple has two young sons.
"In the end, all the horror and hell that my husband saw got to him," she said.
Last Friday, Joppa-Hagemann and friend Jorge Gonzalez decided to go to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Rumsfeld was holding a book signing for his new book, "Known and Unknown: A Memoir."
"I just grabbed my husband's funeral program and handed it to him (Rumsfeld) and mentioned that my husband had joined the military because of 9-11 and recently took his life, and his name was Staff Sgt. Hagemann. He said, 'Oh I heard about that'."
He didn't say 'him' — he says 'that'," she said.
After sharing her thoughts with Rumsfeld, she and Gonzalez were escorted out of the building.
Joppa-Hagemann said the encounter may have been brief, but the impression it left upon her was lasting.
"It's what my husband wanted to do, so I did it for him," she said. "I definitely don't plan on stopping or being quiet."
JBLM confirmed that two people became disruptive at Rumsfeld’s book signing on Aug. 26 and had to be escorted out of the building.
There are two investigations underway regarding Hagemann’s death; the 75th Ranger Regiment said Joppa-Hagemann’s concerns will be addressed by those investigations.
After her husband’s death, Joppa-Hagemann teamed up with Gonzalez, an anti-war veteran who manages "Coffee Strong," a local hangout that offers counseling and resources to troops.
"We're trying to stop the deployment of traumatized troops, with PTSD and TBI [traumatic brain injury] and military sexual trauma," Gonzalez said.
