Injured Marine Still Doing His Part
By Susan Morse
Portsmouth Herald
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Ian LeJeune, 27, a former Marine staff sergeant injured in Iraq,
now works at Global Relief Technologies in Portsmouth.
For disabled Marine veteran Ian LeJeune, 27, the ongoing Iraq war is over, yet always there.
LeJeune, of Seabrook, an E–6 staff sergeant, would still be in the military had a 9–foot rocket not slammed into the small, plywood barracks where he slept on Feb. 23, 2005.
He knew he was in trouble when he found a priest standing over him, praying over and over, he said.
"I more or less got woken up by a large explosion," LeJeune said. "I got thrown clear across the room. I heard someone say, "There's no way anybody's alive in there." I crawled out most of the way on my stomach."
Of the two men in the barracks when the rocket hit, LeJeune was the most badly injured. His legs were on fire, and as men carried him to the medic station, the flesh fell away from one leg. Both were shattered.
"A lot of people probably thought I'd never walk again," LeJeune said.
After at least 10 surgeries and months spent in hospitals in Texas and California, LeJeune was given a medical discharge on May 29.
In August, he returned home to Seabrook with his wife, Vanessa, and at least a dozen ribbons for service to his country, including the Purple Heart.
He's gone from using a wheelchair, to a walker and now a cane.
His left Achilles tendon is severed, he wears a leg brace, and there are plates inside his left foot and right knee. Doctors put a spinal cord stimulator in his back to help with the pain in his legs. A wire leads to batteries, which he can signal to send a tingling sensation. He's on pain medication. The sound of thunder, car doors slamming, balloons popping, "These noises make my skin crawl," he said.
On the day of the elections in which Democrats took over long-held Republican seats in what some have called a referendum on President Bush and his handling of Iraq, LeJeune talked about the war.
"Should we have gone over there?" he said. "I think so. People who don’t wear a uniform. Outside the military, they don’t know what’s going on. There was a madman running the country. ... I’ve only run into a small group of individuals who don’t appreciate the sacrifices, what's going on over there."
LeJeune, who joined the Marines in 1998, was about to submit his warrant officer package when he was injured a month into his third deployment.
Out of the military, he looked for work in California and got nowhere, he said.
"I'd like to say it wasn't because I was disabled," he said.
In the Marine Corps, LeJeune was a tactical communicator, a trouble shooter for satellite communications, telephone networks and computers.
It's a skill that fits well with his new employer, Global Relief Technologies Inc. at Pease International Tradeport.
The firm develops software for personal digital assistants that allow emergency responders to wirelessly file real–time reports from the field to the company's headquarters. The data is analyzed, mapped and sent to decision–makers.
LeJeune holds a personal digital assistant, or PDA, in the palm of his hand. Through the PDA, he can maintain contact with a person in the middle of nowhere.
Global Relief Technologies was recently awarded a $3.5 million contract by the Department of Defense to help track outbreaks of bird flu in Asia. Should there be a pandemic, special teams of Marines based in Asia would be mobilized, using PDAs to gather intelligence.
Computer screens projected on a wall show maps of confirmed cases of avian flu since 2003. Another shows the region torn up by Hurricane Katrina.
The company donated equipment to aid in Katrina and Hurricane Rita relief. It also coordinated with the Marine Corps to track individuals for disaster assistance.
"We're sort of a go–between between the military and humanitarian efforts," LeJeune said. "If there's any types of problems with equipment in the field, I'm here."
President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Gray formerly served as a U.S. State Department adviser to U.S. Central Command and Gen. Tommy Franks, regarding humanitarianism and reconstruction operations.
"We founded the company because of the situation of lack of support in the field," Gray said. "People like Ian provide expertise, serve as a direct link for people in the field. Ian possesses the expertise, demeanor and understanding. He doesn't fade under pressure."
LeJeune started work at his new job on Sept. 11, 2006.
Five years earlier, he had been driving to work in California when the first plane hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
He was deployed to Kuwait in February 2003, a month before the Iraq invasion. He was later sent to an area 80 miles north of Fallujah.
LeJeune, the son of Bernice LeJeune and Joseph Richard LeJeune Sr., was born in Lynn, Mass., but grew up in Seabrook. After dropping out of Winnacunnet High School, he earned his high school degree at night to meet the demands of Marine Corps recruiters.
He wanted to go to college and see the world, he said.
"The way I look at it, kids sign the enlistment contract for the wrong reason, to go to college," he said. "When you sign, you have to realize you're signing (potentially) to losing your life."
LeJeune and his wife are in the process of selling their home in Marietta, Calif., and buying a house in the Seacoast.
LeJeune turns 28 this month. He wants to earn a degree in computer science and looks toward advancement in his job.
"Everyone can do their part one way or another," he said. "It's much better to take care of these problems on foreign shores. There's plenty of people to do their part. My dues have been paid."