Wounded Idaho Soldier among First to Receive Expanded Insurance

A Marine reservist who lost a leg in Iraq will be one of the first injured Idaho soldiers to receive money under traumatic injury insurance legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

“I came out here to say thank you from one Idahoan to another,” Mitch Ehlke, 21, told the senator when Craig unveiled the new program.

Craig thanked Ehlke for his service in Iraq and gave him a flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported.

The new insurance program, also called “wounded warrior” legislation, is intended to provide money quickly to seriously injured soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers receive from $25,000 to $100,000.

The program began with $460 million, and will be
self-sustaining, Craig said, with insurance premiums paid by
soldiers.

The money paid to injured soldiers will help family members travel to be with them at medical facilities.

“There’s a period of time from when they are wounded to when they begin to receive disability,” Craig told The Idaho Statesman. “A lot of these families burn down their savings and quit their jobs” in that initial period.

Ehlke has recovered from a May 8 explosion that occurred while he was driving a tank. He was flown to Germany for treatment, and his right leg had to be amputated. He has been undergoing therapy the last five months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the Washington, D.C., area.

Ehlke’s father, Warren, said the family was able to join Mitch Ehlke in Germany after the injury without serious financial problems. But Mitch Ehlke said if the insurance program had come through earlier he could have used the money to have family near him during the difficult rehabilitation period.

Now recovered, he said he plans to use the money to make a down payment on a house. He said he also plans to serve out the remainder of his two-year reserve commitment.