Lauri Turner listens as Lt. Col. Brian Beckno, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, reads a plaque commemorating her son's combat service in Afghanistan. Turner's son, Spc. Jacob Andrews, earned the combat infantryman badge but did not receive it. He later was forced out of the Army and hanged himself in the woods near his childhood home. (Courtesy of Lauri Turner)
Lauri Turner listens as Lt. Col. Brian Beckno, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, reads a plaque commemorating her son's combat service in Afghanistan. Turner's son, Spc. Jacob Andrews, earned the combat infantryman badge but did not receive it. He later was forced out of the Army and hanged himself in the woods near his childhood home. (Courtesy of Lauri Turner)
Lauri Turner, center right, the mother of Spc. Jacob Andrews, stands with Andrews' girlfriend, Ashley Mercante, and the couple's baby as she receives a plaque from 3rd Brigade Combat Team Commander Col. Samuel Whitehurst. Andrews, who committed suicide in April 2011, was the only soldier in his unit who did not receive a combat infantryman badge at the time, so the unit set up the ceremony to posthumously award the badge and plaque to his family. Three soldiers who served with Andrews also attended the ceremony. (Courtesy of Lauri Turner)
Spc. Jacob Andrews' son, Jake, wears a combat infantryman badge his father earned in Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Lauri Turner)
Former Army Spc. Jacob Andrews in a photo taken during his deployment to Afghanistan during 2009. Jacobs committed suicide in April 2011, shortly after he was kicked out of the Army amid a confluence of mental health issues and behavioral problems. (Courtesy of Lauri Turner)
Spc. Jacob Andrews' family received this plaque from his former unit at a ceremony to posthumously present him with the combat infantryman badge he earned in Afghanistan in 2009, but didn't receive. (Courtesy of Lauri Turner)
WASHINGTON — The family of a soldier who hanged himself after he was denied the combat infantryman badge, forced out of the Army and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury has finally received the combat badge he earned in 2009.
“It was the first time the Army acknowledged me on a human level,” said former Spc. Jacob Andrews’ mother, Lauri Turner.
Col. Samuel Whitehurst and Lt. Col. Brian Beckno, the commanders of 3rd Brigade Combat Team and 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, pinned combat infantryman badges on Turner and Andrews’ infant son, Jake, in a ceremony at Fort Drum, N.Y. on Thursday. Turner also received a plaque commemorating Andrews’ combat service.
“It was a very genuine ceremony,” Turner said in an email. “I didn’t feel like they were just doing it to get me to go away. … Col. Whitehurst and Lt. Col. Beckno were very comforting.”
Andrews deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was involved in more than a dozen firefights, according to those who served with him. He suffered a TBI and started drinking heavily, getting in trouble for numerous alcohol-related incidents and arguments with superiors. He was discharged in September 2010 for misconduct and later was diagnosed with PTSD.
In April 2011, he hanged himself in the woods near his childhood home, leaving behind his parents and his then-pregnant girlfriend, Ashley Mercante.
Mercante gave birth to Jake, on Oct. 31, 2011.
Lt. Col. Andrew DeKever, who served in the same battalion as Andrews but never met him, read Andrews’ story in Stars and Stripes. He, like Turner, felt the young soldier had been wronged and he started a campaign to get the family the combat infantryman badge Andrews should have received in 2010.
DeKever said the current brigade leadership was very receptive and agreed to a ceremony as soon as they read Andrews’ story.
Turner said she was grateful to receive the badge. She sat down with Whitehurst for about 15 minutes to talk about the challenges she still faces — including trying to get a Purple Heart for her son — and feels that the command is “trying to do better” than the previous command.
