Maine Native Shares Glimpse of Military Care
SOLDIER
Bangor Daily News
Carlene Olsen
Boston University Washington News Service
4/05/07
WASHINGTON, April 5 – Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Levensailor’s new iMac computer remains untouched next to the older PC model on his desk, which features a slideshow of combat photos rotating across its screen.
“I don’t know how to use these things,” Levensailor, a native of Guilford, Maine, says as he points to the sleek, white monitor sporting the apple logo. “But they put one in every room.”
Upon first glance, Levensailor’s living space at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington could be mistaken for an orderly, college dorm room outfitted with a kitchenette, couch and flat screen TV. A Miami Dolphins blanket covers his twin bed and a model tank rests on the nearby desk.
But Levensailor, 44, is no college student: Just one month ago, he lived amidst mousetraps and mildew in Building 18, the hospital’s infamous, now-closed outpatient ward.
“Yes, there were mousetraps on the floors [of the room], but when you’re used to living in tents in combat zones you’ve seen much worse,” Levensailor says of his former residence..
Levensailor, a member of the Maine Army National Guard, lived in Building 18 for three months before a series of articles in The Washington Post revealed the ward’s poor living conditions, causing him to relocate. When the patients in the building were moved, their new rooms were outfitted with flat screen TVs and the Mac computers. But the conditions in Building 18 were just a minor detail of a larger problem, Levensailor says.
When combat wounds both mental and physical cut Levensailor’s 24 years of military service short, his battle with the health care system had just begun. After a year and a half in military care, Levensailor has yet to receive a disability rating for his service. A disability rating is a measure the Pentagon assigns to wounded veterans after they are discharged from medical care that affects how much disability payment they receive.
“I don’t want to leave here with nothing,” he says from his room at Walter Reed. “We served our country and now we have to fight the Army system to defend our rights; it’s just not fair.”
Living the Dream
Levensailor, born June 18, 1962, wanted to be a soldier for as long as he can remember. As a child, he played with model tanks and watched clips of the Vietnam War on the evening news in Guilford.
“Some boys will build model airplanes,” Mary Owens, Levensailor’s mother, said in a telephone interview from her home in Chesapeake, Va. “Brian built tanks and Army equipment models and used hundreds of Army men to do strategies.”
Military fever runs in Levensailor’s family. His grandfather, biological father and step-father were war veterans.
“I cannot remember wanting to be anything other than be a soldier,” Levensailor says dressed in camouflage. “All my life, that’s the only thing I’ve wanted to do.”
When Levensailor met the woman of his dreams during high school in Guilford, Merrilee Mitchell knew marriage meant life as a soldier’s wife. Two years after high school, in July of 1982, the couple said “I do” at an Army base in Germany
“You have to learn to survive on your own,” Merrilee Levensailor said. “You have to be strong yourself and be able to do everything because you know he’s not going to be around that much.”
Merrilee Levensailor and the couple’s daughters, Nicole, 21, and Vanessa, 19, have not seen Levensailor in more than 15 months. The family cannot spare the time or funds needed to make the trip from their home in Guilford to Washington.
“We do communicate by phone and Internet, but it’s hard,” Merrilee Levensailor said. “The girls would say, ‘we always knew we had you, mom,’ even if they wondered where their father was.”
Military Life
Levensailor joined the Army in 1981, fresh out of high school. He then spent 13 years on active duty where he worked on M-60 tanks and served three tours of duty in Germany.
In 1993 Levensailor got caught in the post-Cold War “draw down,” the federal government’s attempt to cut military spending and reduce the Army by two-thirds.
“We had the option to take voluntary separation [from the Army] or wait a year and get kicked out,” he says. “You chose to take separation because at least you get the severance package, but it wasn’t really a choice.”
Levensailor then joined the 181st Air Traffic Control Detachment Unit of the Maine Army National Guard on Jan. 1, 1994, where one of his jobs included a security stint at the Bangor International Airport.
In May of 2003, Levensailor’s unit received a mobilization order – an instant ticket to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“When I stepped out of the plane [in Kandahar] I thought I was walking into the exhaust, but it was just the hot air outside,” Levensailor says with closed eyes. “We were later told temperatures at the base reached 128 degrees that day.”
First Sgt. Steven Craig led Levensailor’s squad unit in Afghanistan and knew him previously from their time in the Maine National Guard.
“Levensailor was a super troop,” Craig said. “He was all soldier.”
But rocket attacks and lifting heavy equipment in Kandahar left Levensailor with physical and mental scars.
Injuries
“The [rocket] attacks would always come when the air was heavy with dust,” Levensailor said. “We could never see it coming.”
In one rocket attack he was injured, adding to the injuries sustained when a beam fell on him during construction of a bunker. His mother said he has some brain damage from the attacks.
“People look at him and think nothing is wrong because he’s not missing a limb, but there are neurological things going on,” Owens said. “It’s very frustrating.”
In Afghanistan, Levensailor had to be instructed to seek medical attention because he was determined to work despite his injuries.
“He always put the other troops ahead of his own personal needs,” Craig said.
Levensailor said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD for short, memory loss and poor balance in addition to back, shoulder and leg injuries.
“Brian’s frustration level is very close to the surface,” Owens said. “Part of it is PTSD and part of it is the run around he gets on a weekly and monthly basis” at Walter Reed.
Medical Care
Levensailor’s unit left Afghanistan Nov. 28, 2003, enabling him to spend Christmas with his family. Then the medical battle began.
Levensailor spent a year receiving medical care at the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta before he was mobilized to Fort Irwin in California in December of 2004, where he worked at a museum on the military base.
After a year and half at Fort Irwin, Levensailor was put on medical hold for six months because of pain from previous injuries. He was then told he needed to transfer to Walter Reed for care since he was a member of the National Guard, which the base hospital does not service.
“The Army rarely lies; they just don’t tell you the whole truth,” Levensailor says of his medical delays.
Levensailor arrived at Walter Reed and moved into Building 18 on Pearl Harbor Day—Dec. 7—of last year.
“The room wasn’t all that bad,” Levensailor says, “We’re all soldiers; we’re used to living in much worse conditions.”
Now, regular inspections are performed at the outpatient facility to monitor room conditions.
“Right now everything is under the microscope,” Levensailor says as an inspector enters his room, opens each cabinet drawer, checks the stove burners and asks if there are any additional concerns.
Beyond Walter Reed
“It was a rough day for me to realize I could not keep being a soldier without being a burden on other people,” Levensailor said. “I’ve been a soldier my whole life.”
Levensailor’s physical and mental limitations make finding what he calls a “civilian job” difficult. But Levesailor is still waiting for his disability rating, which can be a long and ongoing process.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) visited Levensailor at Walter Reed in early March and said his experiences helped her evaluate the medical bureaucracy that exists within military facilities.
“Brian said there were no advocates for the soldiers and we need to really act upon that,” Snowe said in a phone interview. “It’s disgraceful to hear that the overwhelming, but complex [disability rating] process is a means by which to deny those serving our county the benefits the government promised them.”
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