Yelm widow confronts Rumsfeld

Yelm widow confronts Rumsfeld to vent feelings about troops' care

Woman, friend escorted away from ex-defense secretary

August 28, 2011 - A military widow from Yelm who contends the Army is not providing enough care for soldiers returning from combat confronted former Defense Secretary 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, a father of two, 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 help. On June 28, he committed suicide.

“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 Sergeant Hagemann . He said, ‘Oh I heard about that.’

“He didn't say ‘him’ -- he says ‘that,’” she said. read more>>>