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Richard Ingram wants to fight for his country. He wants it so badly that he’s fought the U.S. Army for two years for the right to do just that.
Ingram, a 25-year-old LaGrange Academy graduate, was commissioned Saturday as a second lieutenant in the Army during a graduation and commissioning ceremony at North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega. He is the first soldier in the war in Iraq to have such serious combat injuries and subsequently earn a commission through the Army ROTC program, according to U.S. Army Cadet Command.
Ingram’s battle to be commissioned began after he was injured while serving in Iraq with the Alabama National Guard.
His Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb on the morning of July 20, 2005. The blast lifted and flipped the 5,000-pound vehicle three times, injuring all the soldiers inside. Ingram’s left arm was mangled and hours later in Baghdad, it was amputated just below his elbow. He spent his re-covery and rehabilitation time at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. He retired, as is customary, from the National Guard in 2006 and returned to finish college in Dah-lonega.
“I always aspired to be an officer, but I didn’t want to fight the medical board,” Ingram said. “I decided to go to school and work my connections and get back in.”
That’s exactly what he did.
After returning to Georgia he met state Sen. John Douglas R-Social Circle, the chairman of Veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee, when Douglas read about Ingram in the newspaper. Douglas invited him to a University of Georgia football game.
“I was impressed with his determination and effort to rehabilitate himself,” Douglas said.
With one intern position available, he offered it to Ingram.
Ingram served as Douglas’ intern, working at the state legislature, in the spring of 2007. During that time, he told Douglas that he wanted to be commissioned as an officer into the Army, but faced a policy that didn’t allow amputees who wanted to be commissioned. Soldiers who are injured while in the Army are, of course, allowed to stay, Douglas explained.
Ingram went with Douglas to Washington, D.C., and the two of them met with the inspector general of the Army.
“We talked about Richard’s case and the problem with the current policy,” Douglas said. “Lo and behold, the policy did change.”
Throughout the long process, Ingram and his family have been impressed with the widespread support he received. As he cleaned out his house last week preparing to move, Ingram found a box of letters he saved. Most of them he received during his rehabilitation.
“I got hundreds of letters. A lot from people I know, but a whole bunch that said, ‘You don’t know me, but …’ It’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s made me realize I need to thank everyone from LaGrange who helped me.”
His mother, Janice In-gram, a teacher at LaGrange Academy, agreed.
“People in this community have been super supportive, and North Georgia has been with him through thick and thin,” she said.
Although Ingram recognizes the dangers of her son’s career path, she has continued to support him.
“When he found out he was going back to the military, he was like a little kid in a candy store. It’s what he’s wanted to do all along,” she said. “You always know you don’t want your children in harm’s way, but you couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Last summer, Ingram attended the Leadership Development Assessment Course that every Army ROTC cadet must attend before being commissioned as an officer. The 35-day course at Fort Lewis, Wash., includes evaluation on physical fitness, land navigation, marksmanship and leadership.
“He finished No. 2 in his platoon out of about 50 cadets,” said Lt. Col. Joe Jarrard, executive officer of the military science department at North Georgia College and State University.
With a prosthetic arm, Ingram was able to do everything required of the cadets, with no special accommodations. That included doing about 80 push-ups in two minutes. He had no trouble with any of the physical fitness or the marksmanship – two things that might be daunting to an amputee.
“I have more trouble buttoning my pants than I do shooting a rifle,” Ingram said.
When he finished the course, he still didn’t know if he’d be allowed into the Army.
The long wait has been frustrating at times for Ingram who said he wanted to “just tell them I’m a patriot and I’m willing to give my life in the battle. But it just doesn’t work that way.”
Final word came late Thursday that Ingram would be commissioned.
Now an Army officer, Ingram is on the career path he has chosen.
“I know what I want. I want to be a combat officer and I want to make command decisions that affect the Army,” he said. “That is my goal.”
No one doubts he’ll do just that.
Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240. |
