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(March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. The following is a guest entry from Chelsea Travers with CareMeridian. I think the new FCC rules require me to disclose that we were not compensated in any way to publish this announcement. - Editor)
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is becoming a common wound of modern warfare. It has even been coined the “signature wound” of the War on Terror. While TBI is becoming more prevalent in wartime activity, many service men and women continue to go undiagnosed. Institutions, like the US Department of Veterans Affairs, are working to make quick and accurate diagnoses in order to prescribe appropriate and effective treatment.
TBI is caused by forced trauma to the head, either by being shaken or hit. The severity of a TBI varies from case to case, but symptoms range from mild concussions to a debilitating state. The majority of TBI’s acquired by military personnel are classified as mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI). Initial symptoms of MTBI consist of loss of consciousness, disorientation, loss of memory, headache, and temporary loss of hearing and vision. They are often partnered with anxiety, irritability, difficulties processing information, limited concentration amongst other problems experienced down the road. While MTBI is most common amongst the men and women of the armed forces, more severe cases of TBI are happening much more frequently and often require the victim to attended specialty rehabilitative nursing centers, like CareMeridian.
The most common cause of a TBI in the military is due to blasts. There are three degrees of blast injuries where a TBI is common; Primary (due to blast itself), Secondary (due to objects being propelled by a blast) and Tertiary (due to a collision with a third party object). According to the Veterans Health Initiative, active male members of the military from the ages 18-24 are hospitalized with a TBI at a rate of 231 per 100,000 and females 150 per 100,000. Based on military force projections this would mean that 4,141 military personnel are hospitalized on average each year with a TBI, and these numbers often rise during wartimes.
The best prevention for veterans to avert the long-term effects of a brain injury is to recognize the symptoms of a TBI. Once the symptoms are identified an individual should take basic precautionary measures in order to begin the healing and recovery process until a more specific diagnosis can be made.
Service men and women give so much to protect this country and they deserve to come home to a happy and healthy life. Creating awareness about TBI will help ensure their long term health. By helping our veterans, their friends and their families recognize the early warning signs of a TBI, treatment can be sought as early as possible.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pfc. Erin L. McLyman, 26, of Federal Way, Wash., died March 13 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked her base with mortar fire. She was assigned to the 296th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lews-McChord, Wash.
Related:
Defense.gov News Release: DOD Identifies Army Casualty
Pentagon confirms Lewis-McChord soldier's death - FOB Tacoma
'She was somebody I wanted my daughter to look up to' - KOMO News
Eugene native dies in Iraq, becomes Oregon's latest war casualty - OregonLive.com
'Lost child' grew up to be a decorated soldier - Seattle Times
Fallen soldier was 'proud to be' in Army - The News Tribune
The News Tribune carried a report on the recent elections written by Col. David Funk, commander of the 3/2 SBCT.
Make no mistake. The security for this election was an ISF show. Our brigade was an interested observer, providing aerial coverage and bomb disposal support. We also assisted with training and rehearsals before the big event.But out on the ground where it mattered most, where citizens were braving lengthy walks to polling sites, where the enemy did his best to threaten and intimidate, the ISF were the only uniformed personnel in sight.
They reacted magnificently. Throughout the entire week preceding the election, each explosion was an opportunity for the ISF to either shrink from their duty or to embrace it. They did the latter. Their quick and brave responses had a palpable effect on the citizens here, solidifying their new-found reputation as dedicated, professional patriots.
The elections succeeded for another reason. No amount of security would have resulted in success unless the citizens of Diyala wanted – indeed demanded – to stake a claim in their future. With more than 60 percent of eligible Diyalans participating in the electoral process, it is clear they have staked this claim.
DVIDS has three new videos featuring soldiers from the 2nd SCR training for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
2 SCR Key Leader Engagement Scenario
Story by Pvt. Zach Zuber
DIYALA, Iraq – On March 7, Iraqi citizens in Diyala province proved their desire for democracy and chose to ignore threats of violence and harm. Iraqi security forces showed they know how to plan and execute successful security operations to allow this democratic process to happen. They demonstrated what they have learned and what they have always been capable of, all in one day.
At the Diyala Provincial Joint Coordination Center, leaders from the Iraqi security forces came together to manage efforts to keep their people safe as they voted for the leaders they support during the Iraqi parliamentary elections.
"We are happy for our success but also sad because one civilian died," said Brig. Gen. Kamal Issah Mustafa. "This was a success for democracy that we consider a step forward in our future."
The day proved a step forward because of the process involved in creating a secure voting environment.
Story by Sgt. Bryce Dubee
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – As U.S. forces proceed on course with the responsible drawdown of forces in Iraq, Soldiers in the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division legal office are working hard to set things right and tie up loose ends among Iraqi citizens who are owed compensation from the U.S. government.
The Army has programs in place designed to address any claims filed by Iraqi citizens, including property damage, injury or loss of life, and even paying landowners lease payments for land used by the U.S. military.
For example, if a 20-ton Stryker accidentally backs into an Iraqi citizen's car, the drivers can't exactly exchange information and let the insurance companies take care of it.
Instead, the citizen can file a claim with the military, which is then processed and paid out by military legal professionals.
Afghanistan: Dodging the bombs - Times Online
I am embedded with the US troops of Alpha Company, the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, who operate in a Stryker brigade along a 37-mile stretch from combat outposts with names such as Ramrod and Terminator, on the border between Kandahar and Helmand provinces. As their unit’s name indicates, the soldiers patrol the road in Stryker vehicles — armoured troop carriers — acting as part attack force, part highway patrol.“Our primary role is to secure the route and to provide freedom of movement for the Afghan people,” says First Sergeant Kevin Floyd from Perkasie, Pennsylvania. “This road is vital to the whole country, it’s the only route that runs east-west and everything that moves does so on this route.
“But it’s equally important to the Taliban, who are actively targeting coalition convoys and the Afghan army. They use the road to move weapons and fighters west, and opium east down to Pakistan. When we got here they were placing some massive IEDs [bombs] in the culverts under the road, but we’ve been blocking those with concertina wire, so recently they’ve been placing smaller pressure-plate IEDs on the side of the road.”
US soldier in Afghanistan has a dream - The Associated Press
BADULA QULP, Afghanistan—He proposed to her on Oct. 6, and she made him say "Will you marry me?" over and over because she liked the sound of it. He proposed again on her birthday four days later, and this time he got down on one knee with a diamond ring. His mother was on the phone, listening in as a witness.It all happened in Mount Holly, North Carolina. Now, U.S. Army Pvt. Mark Goodwin is in Afghanistan and his fiancee, Jillian De Voe, is waiting back home. They have spent a month of their lives together, and they say they plan to marry on July 4, a year after they met. They are young—he is 21, she is 23—but their tale of lovers separated by war is an old one, known by many across generations.
Goodwin is the lowest-ranking soldier in Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Stryker Brigade, but he doesn't worry about status. He missed a promotion because he missed a plane—"I slept in"—while heading back to his unit from leave after he proposed. It was a "nice little fiasco," he said, but it meant more time with De Voe.
The Bridge is Yon's most recent dispatch from Afghanistan.
Supplies shipped by sea to the port of Karachi flow through two major arteries into Afghanistan. In the north is Torkham, near the famous Khyber Pass. In the south is Spin Boldak, a border town located between Quetta in Pakistan, and Kandahar in Afghanistan. Kandahar, with its critical airfield, will be a major locus for the upcoming offensive, making route security crucial to US/NATO plans.Stryker Brigade Combat Team 5/2 (SBCT) is responsible for security at the Spin Boldak point of entry and has deployed the 8-1 Cavalry squadron to live in and patrol the area. Just north of Spin Boldak, in the wilds along the border, are known enemy safe havens that were used during the Soviet war.
The Stryker Brigade is also tasked with a Freedom of Movement (FOM) mission that extends from Spin Boldak along Highway 4 past Kandahar Airfield (KAF), which is literally one of the busiest airports in the world. According to AFCENT, during FY09 there were 184,095 tower movements at KAF, which explains why it’s so loud there. Highway 4 passes the eastern end of KAF’s single runway. About three miles beyond the runway, Highway 4 crosses over the Tarnak River Bridge, one of a number of crucial chokepoints, on the road north to Kandahar.
By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service
FORWARD OPERATING BASE FRONTENAC, Afghanistan, March 9, 2010 – A white-painted blast wall standing in front of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, headquarters here bearing the names of 22 fallen soldiers was a sobering reminder to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates of the cost of the war.
Gates is visiting Afghanistan to get the “ground truth” directly from the soldiers at the sharp end of the spear. He visited with soldiers at this base and also traveled to Now Zad to visit Marines who are liberating Helmand province from the Taliban.
The 17th Infantry is part of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade based at Fort Lewis, Wash. The unit was supposed to deploy to Iraq, but President Barack Obama ordered more troops to Afghanistan, and the mission shifted. The soldiers arrived in July as the first Stryker brigade to deploy here.