May 16, 2008; Washington, D.C. – In its continuing coverage of military treatment of soldiers returning from war, NPR News reports that spouses of troops with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other serious mental health problems have made it their mission to force the military to give the troops the help they need. The report from NPR National Correspondent Daniel Zwerdling is airing Friday, May 16 on NPR News’ All Things Considered.
In this piece, Zwerdling profiles Tammie Lecompte, whose husband became so severely depressed when he returned from his second tour in Iraq that doctors feared he would die.
In 2006 and 2007, Zwerdling’s six-part series on the mistreatment of soldiers at Fort Carson helped prompt Congress to focus on the issue and earned a 2008 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and George Foster Peabody Award. Earlier this year, NPR News reported that Department of Veterans’ Affairs staff at Fort Drum in upstate New York had been instructed to stop assisting injured soldiers with their military disability paperwork, used to determine annual disability payments, which led to congressional leaders asking the Army to investigate these charges and to a national soldiers’ advocacy group announcing plans to seek an official military Court of Inquiry probe into the situation.
All Things Considered, NPR’s signature afternoon news magazine, reaches 12 million listeners weekly, and is hosted by Melissa Block, Michele Norris and Robert Siegel.
