In an enlightening article on the current lack of leadership in DC and the killing fields of Afghanistan, Leslie H. Gelb reports on the opening of a new medical facility in Bethesda, Maryland (near DC) to treat active-duty soldiers and veterans suffering from brain injuries and psychological disorders. Unfortunately, this article is not about the brave men and women and their families who were on hand for the innauguration of this long overdue facility, but about those who chose not ...
Continue Reading →Point Blank Solutions Bankruptcy Proceedings
Reuters reports that unsecured creditors of Point Blank Solutions Inc. have asked the Delaware bankruptcy court to appoint an examiner or Chapter 11 trustee to displace the company’s board.
According to the Reuters news release, “the official committee of unsecured creditors claimed that the company had placed the interests of insiders above maximizing value of the business. The filing claims that “restructuring alternatives had benefited Steel Partners, which provided Point Blank with a $20 million debtor-in-possession loan.” According to ...
Continue Reading →Is the military covering up the extent Traumatic Brain Injury?
In an explosive new report by ProPublica and National Public Radio (“NPR”) it would appear that the US military is seriously underestimating the brain damage or traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) caused by roadside bombs. Officially, the military claims that 115,000 troops have suffered “mild” TBI, although ProPublica and NPR claim that “unpublished military reports” place the number much higher.
T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR, examined government records, previously undisclosed studies, and private correspondence between senior medical officials and ...
Continue Reading →SPC Charles “Doc” Parrish KIA 4 June 2009 Iraq
Doc was the combat medic for 1st Platoon, 55th Engineer Company, 5th Engineer Battalion. He was a 23 year old, gentle giant from Alabama with an calm demeanor and a way of putting everyone around him at ease. I was his first platoon leader and I remember liking him from the day he showed up. No matter how long the mission had been, Doc was always ready to take care of his Soldiers’ needs. As fortune would have it, I ...
Continue Reading →BAE Helmet Sensor Contract a Step in the Right Direction
BAE Systems has received an initial order of $17 million from the U.S. Army for Headborne Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Systems (“HEADS”) to help address combat-related traumatic brain injuries(“TBI”), which according to many medical professionals are becoming a signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. BAE is one of two military contractors who has received such a contract with a maximum contract award value of $105 million.
According to the news release, the HEAD’s sensor system is “designed to better monitor soldiers ...
Continue Reading →Rules of Engagement: Battlefield Dilemma
The Washington recently aired a story on the increased frustration with the “Rules of Engagement” governing military personnel deployed in Afghanistan. The story, written by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, documents several incidences where US troops under attack were not able call in additional support for fear of wounding or killing civilians. Said one disgruntled soldier interviewed for the Washington Post article, ‘”this is not how you fight a war, at least not in Kandahar, we’ve been handcuffed by our chain of command.”
According to ...
Continue Reading →DOD Calls for Changes in Military Procurement Practices
In a delightful article published by Huffington Post entitled “Pentagon’s New Contractor Policy Doesn’t Scare the Defense Industry At All,” Huffington’s editors sadly conclude that recently announced measures to improve the efficiency of the military’s procurement process are likely to produce little more than a yawn from contractors who have long thrived on the ineptitude of the Defense Department.
In a June 28th Memorandum for Acquisition Professionals, Defense Department ...
Military Helmets: Traumatic Brain Injury
Dr. Charles Hoge, the U.S. Army’s senior mental health researcher at Walter Reed Hospital from 2002 to 2009 and now advisor to the Army Surgeon General, wrote an interesting piece for the Huffington Post in which he effectively dismissed the idea that there might be lingering effects from mild traumatic brain injury (“TBI”). This article appears to have written to place the US Army “spin” on earlier report from the New York Times that a US Army ...
Continue Reading →Historical Convergences
Hack has said that his favorite book was “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. It is one of my own as well. There was an other famous writer of that time named Lao Tzu. I am certain that Hack knew him as well.
Lao Tzu was the founder of Taoism. When he became old and infirm, he refused to write his “testiment”. So that others could not pervert his legacy, and use it to their benefit. Alas, before he left ...
Continue Reading →Taliban snipers test body armor and helmets
A recent article by Terri Judd of London-based The Independent entitled “Sharp rise in Army deaths from small arms fire prompts inquiry into Taliban snipers,” suggests that troops may not have the proper helmets or body armor to deal with the changing tactics of the Taliban.
According to the article, “commanders in Afghanistan are examining whether a sharp rise in troops being killed by gunfire is a sign that a better trained or equipped Taliban is targeting soldiers ...
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