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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  Officially, the military claims that 115,000 troops have suffered “mild” TBI, although ProPublica and NPR claim that “unpublished military reports” place the number much higher.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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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.

Ashton_CarterIn a June 28th Memorandum for Acquisition Professionals, Defense Department ...

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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 ...

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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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US Army Body Armor Recalls: A matter of trust

In the midst of yet another example of deficient body armor, the US Army continues to insist that body armor and body armor plates supplied to US troops are safe.    In late January,  Secretary of Army Pete Geren stated that ‘there is nothing more important than the safety of our Soldiers, their confidence in their equipment, and America’s confidence in their Army.”

He went on to say that “out of more than 2,300 body armor tests conducted by the Army, the ...

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More Body Armor Plate Recalls

In what is now becoming a regular occurrence, the US Army is recalling body armor plates that may have failed to meet manufacturing specifications.

According to the June 14th news release, the US “Army recently issued a message for all troops and units to inspect their body armor, specifically the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, or ESAPI, in search of a specific model that was not made according to contract requirements.”

The US Army claims that “the ...

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Weapon Jamming Reported in Afghanistan

SFTT has had a single report from a credible source that a unit in Afghanistan has problems — jamming — with their government issued magazines for their 5.56mm weapons.    These single-spring magazines are jamming in Afghanistan firefights and some believe these government-issued magazines are inferior to the double-spring magazines currently available  commercially.

These problems appear to be due to the single-spring magazines not having sufficient force to work when exposed to sand, dirt, etc. — that is common during normal tactical conditions encountered in ...

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