Remember the recent statements Rep. Jack Murtha made about the lies told by the Pentagon, when he was questioned about statements that the Democrats refusal to pass an unconditional Iraq War supplemental was going to lead to immediate cuts and layoffs? Yeah, he called them liars. And he was right to do so. Because they’re still lying for the benefit of their overlords in the White House. And this lie is particularly loathsome:
At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.
The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon’s official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327. […]
The data came from:
• Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center in Germany, where troops evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan for injury, illness or wounds are brought before going home. Since May 2006, more than 2,300 soldiers screened positive for brain injury, hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw says.
• Fort Hood, Texas, home of the 4th Infantry Division, which returned from a second Iraq combat tour late last year. At least 2,700 soldiers suffered a combat brain injury, Lt. Col. Steve Stover says.
• Fort Carson, Colo., where more than 2,100 soldiers screened were found to have suffered a brain injury, according to remarks by Army Col. Heidi Terrio before a brain injury association seminar.
• Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where 1,737 Marines were found to have suffered a brain injury, according to Navy Cmdr. Martin Holland, a neurosurgeon with the Naval Medical Center San Diego.
• VA hospitals, where Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been screened for combat brain injuries since April. The VA found about 20% of 61,285 surveyed — or 11,804 veterans — with signs of brain injury, spokeswoman Alison Aikele says. VA doctors say more evaluation is necessary before a true diagnosis of brain injury can be confirmed in all these cases, Aikele says.
As any victim of traumatic brain trauma can tell you, its not readily apparent to many victims that their brain has suffered a traumatic injury, because the symptoms associated with brain trauma are not as well known by the general public, as say cold or flu symptoms. Thus, many vets have literally kept in the dark about the extent of their injuries, most of which could and should have been diagnosed in Iraq.
(cont.)
Marine Lance Cpl. Gene Landrus was hurt in a roadside bomb attack outside Abu Ghraib, Iraq, on May 15, 2006, and faces medical separation from the Corps. He’s also up for a Purple Heart.
Along with 20,000 other veterans, he’s not included in the Pentagon’s official count of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That’s because Landrus’ wound was to his brain and hidden from view. Landrus, 24, of Clarkston, Wash., says he did not realize the nausea, dizziness, memory loss and headaches he suffered after the blast were signs of a lasting brain injury.
Army medics who examined him in the field didn’t find the wound either. “They wanted to know if we had any holes in us, or if we were bleeding. We were in and out of there (the aid station) in 10 to 15 minutes,” Landrus remembers.
For the balance of his combat tour, he tried to shake off the blast’s effects and keep going. Now, “my goal is to get back to a normal life,” he says.
I’ve had several severe concussions in my life. After each one I was treated by physicians who immediately recognized my symptoms and enforced rest. Can you believe that the Army and the Marine Corps are unaware that the blasts from these IEDs are causing severe brain trauma? Neither can I, yet here they are neglecting to even treat soldiers in the field for the possibility that they may have suffered from such injuries. Why?
One can only speculate, but I find it difficult to believe that soldiers involved in IED attacks are not being immediately screened for potential head injuries. A 15 minute review by a medic who doesn’t even check for symptoms of brain injury hardly seems adequate, especially since we know that the majority of soldiers wounded in Iraq incurred their wounds from explosive devices. Some lose their limbs. Some incur massive facial injuries. I strongly suspect that all of them incur severe trauma to the brain, even if they are not unfortunate enough to lose an arm or a leg or half their face to a blast.
Clearly, the military’s medical facilities and physicians back in the US recognize the existence of these injuries, as the USAToday report demonstrates. I find it difficult to accept that they did not forward reports of these injuries involving severe brain trauma to the Pentagon. Yet, we continue to be told the lie that only 4 to 5 thousand vets have suffered these severe head wounds, when they must know that statistic is a false figure to disseminate to the public.
Even worse, however, is the failure to adequately diagnose and treat vets suffering from these injuries in the field. I can only assume that the reason is to keep as many soldiers as possible available for combat duty, even though no one in their right mind would send such individuals back out into combat situations.
Let me explain the after effects of brain trauma based on my own experience. You have massive and recurring headaches for days. Your thinking is impaired; “fuzzy” is the best word to describe the inability to focus and concentrate that I experienced. You frequently suffer from nausea, and may have balance problems. You may even suffer from vertigo attacks, that room spinning sensation most are familiar with only after imbibing way too much alcohol. Imagine having that happen to you when you are sober, completely out of the blue. Now imagine you are on a patrol with other soldiers carrying a loaded firearm. Indeed, imagine suffering from any of these symptoms yet still being sent out on combat missions by your superiors. Imagine being exposed to life threatening situations when you can’t think clearly, when your reaction time is slowed, when you are unable to concentrate on your surroundings. It’s nothing short of criminal that soldiers are being sent back into combat under such circumstances.
That, however, is precisely what we are doing to many of these wounded soldiers. Failing to diagnose their injuries, failing to treat their injuries, and failing them and their comrades who depend upon them. Even worse than the lies that the Pentagon has told us regarding the number of wounded, is their neglect of these soldiers, literally the walking, yet unrecognized, wounded.
Landrus was riding in an open-backed, armored Humvee when the roadside bomb detonated. It was his second exposure to a blast. An explosion a month before had “rung our bells a little bit, but no one was knocked unconscious.”
In the attack May 15, 2006, Landrus and three other Marines blacked out for several seconds. After Landrus regained consciousness, “everything looked like it was going in slow motion,” he recalls.
The battalion came home in August 2006 to Camp Pendleton, Calif., one of a few military installations that screens for brain injuries among returning troops. Landrus was referred to Navy doctors who diagnosed brain injury. With medication and rehabilitation training at nearby Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, Landrus has improved.
“I still can’t remember what I did the day before or stuff that I did earlier in the day,” he says. He carries a Palm Pilot or a pad of paper to write down orders, numbers or dates, so he can remember them later. The headaches have never gone away.
Landrus will never fully recover, says Jessica Martinez, his lead therapist at Scripps.
“This is basically like an invisible injury,” she says. “He looks like a normal guy. … But if you spend any amount of time with him … you would be able to notice that something’s really happened.”
Then to top it all off, there’s this:
The military lacks “a standardized definition of traumatic injury or a uniform process to report all TBI (traumatic brain injury) cases,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Ellen Embrey wrote in a memo last month. As a result, it is hard to determine the scope of the problem, she wrote.
This is more than simple neglect in my view. This is active abuse. And I can only surmise that the real reason is part of a campaign to suppress negative information regarding the war. Which means the Pentagon has been directed to actively ignore these injuries, in order to serve the political goals of President Bush. As always, it is our men and women in the military who are caught in the cross fire.