Ranger’s widow tossed from Rumsfeld signing - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Ranger’s widow tossed from Rumsfeld signing

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — Two people were removed from a Donald Rumsfeld book signing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including the widow of an Army Ranger who blames the military for her husband’s suicide.

Ashley Joppa-Hagemann told The News-Tribune of Tacoma on Saturday that security officers for the former defense secretary escorted her out by the arm. She and the executive director of a Lakewood-based anti-war group confronted Rumsfeld as he promoted his memoir, “Known and Unknown.”

She had introduced herself to Rumsfeld by handing a copy of her husband’s funeral program to the former defense secretary. She told him her husband had joined the military because he believed the lies told by Rumsfeld during his tenure with the Bush administration.

A base spokesman said Saturday that the pair was causing a minor disturbance.