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64 US troops now being treated for Traumatic Brain Injury as toll of Iranian attack continues to increase
Now 64 U.S. troops have been diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury as a result of Iran's Jan. 8 missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq, a defense official confirmed on Thursday.
CNN's Barbara Starr was first to report the latest increase in cases of brain injuries. This is the fourth time that defense officials have revised the number of troops being treated for Traumatic Brain Injury due to the attack. As of Monday, 50 U.S. troops bad been diagnosed with brain injuries.
So far, all of troops have been diagnosed with mild Traumatic Brain Injury, but that could change because brain injury symptoms develop over time, said Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"These things are cumulative too," Milley said at a Thursday Pentagon news briefing. "So if you get multiple concussions that can manifest itself down the road. It could be a year, two years. We're early in the stage of diagnosis. We're early in the stage of therapy for these troops. We'll continue to monitor them – for the rest of their lives, actually."
On Jan. 8, Iran launched 16 ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases hosting U.S. troops in retaliation for the U.S. airstrike that killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A total of 11 missiles struck Al-Asad Air Base.
At one location on the base, the blast from a missile strike collapsed a T-wall onto a bunker where a service member was sheltering, Air Force Maj. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the deputy commander for operations and intelligence for U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, said recently.
"When you have a situation where, you know, we had a fair amount of high explosive go off on al-Assad Air Base, it takes some time to figure out who was near where the explosions were, what bunkers were most at risk," Grynkewich said at a Jan. 23 Pentagon news conference. "Then it also takes some time for some of those symptoms of a concussion or potentially worse injuries to manifest."
President Donald Trump initially said no U.S. troops were harmed by the missile attack, but then Kevin Baron of Defense One first revealed on Jan. 16 that 11 service members had been treated for Traumatic Brain Injury. The Defense Department has continued to revise up the number of troops diagnosed with brain injuries ever since.
Traumatic Brain Injury has been one of the signature wounds of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. While U.S. troops have survived blasts that would have been fatal in previous wars due to better protective equipment, they have also suffered from the type of brain injuries that until the 21st Century were seen mostly in professional football players.
Because U.S. troops often survived several roadside bomb blasts, the damage done to their brains became worse over time. Thousands of cases of Traumatic Brain Injury initially went undiagnosed because the Defense Department did not have criteria to screen service members for brain injuries until 2006.
The effects of Traumatic Brain Injury can be crippling and can also mimic symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress. A 2018 study by the Department of Veterans Affairs found that troops with multiple brain injuries are twice as likely to die by suicide.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars has criticized Trump for saying the troops with Traumatic Brain Injury were not as badly wounded "relative to other injuries that I've seen."
However, Milley said the U.S. military classifies troops with mild Traumatic Brain Injury as "not seriously injured."
"That's not to minimize or dismiss or anything," Milley said. "That's just to say that's how we categorize casualties."
When asked if U.S. troops at Al-Asad should have had better helmets and bunkers to protect them from the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, Milley said no.
"These were 1,000- to 2,000-pound munitions," Milley said. "These things have a bursting radius of 50 to 100 feet. That's the shrapnel and the actual blast. These are very, very serious, significant weapons. If you're within a certain range of that thing, there's no helmet or anything else that is going to save you."
"But I would argue that the defenses were pretty good in that no one was killed," he continued. "There was no loss of life or limb. That's significant."
Man charged with recruiting Camp Pendleton Marines to transport unauthorized immigrants
Federal prosecutors have filed a conspiracy charge against a man accused of recruiting and paying Marines and other United States citizens to transport unauthorized immigrants throughout San Diego County shortly after they crossed from Mexico into the U.S.
The charge against Francisco Saul Rojas-Hernandez is connected with a scheme that entangled some two dozen Camp Pendleton Marines, at least 13 of whom left the Corps in the wake of human trafficking and drug accusations. Military prosecutors dropped most of the charges in the high-profile case late last year after a judge ruled the mass arrest of 16 Marines in front of their 800-person battalion last summer was unlawful.
Top general confirms that, sadly, people serving in the Space Force won’t be called ‘space cadets’
Now that the Space Force has passed through the Pentagon's proverbial birth canal, a major issue facing the sixth military branch is what exactly does one call Space Force service members?
The Space Force is entertaining several options, but "space men" and "space cadets" are not among them, Space Force Vice Commander Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson told reporters on Wednesday.
House passes bill that would stand up VA program for veterans to train service dogs
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill authored by Columbus Republican Rep. Steve Stivers that would set up a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pilot program to teach veterans service dog training as a form of therapy.
The Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers (PAWS) for Veterans Therapy Act authored by Stivers, an Ohio Army National Guard Brigadier General who served in Iraq, would partner with non-profit service dog training organizations to teach the skills to veterans affected by post-traumatic stress. Veterans who complete the program would be able to adopt their service dog if they want to continue with the therapy.
"Too many of the men and women who serve our country return home with unseen trauma," Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a former Navy pilot. "Service dogs soothe the invisible wounds of war."
Air Force vet wins $75,000 settlement with employer who wouldn’t allow service dog
A military veteran who was denied use in her workplace of a service animal by her Twin Cities employer at the time has won $75,000 in a settlement brokered by state human rights officials.
The agreement, announced Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, includes not only payment to 34-year-old Laura Ritt to cover lost income, damages and legal fees, but imposes several policy and training requirements of Marathon Petroleum Corp., which employed Ritt at its St. Paul Park refinery until November.
"More Minnesotans with disabilities are working," Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said in a statement. "Yet, disability discrimination in employment continues to be one the largest areas of discrimination we investigate. That's why we must address discrimination in order to build a more equitable and inclusive Minnesota."
Almost two months after articles of impeachment were brought against him, President Donald Trump was acquitted on Wednesday of both charges.