The post-mortem of Robert Card, who killed 18 folks and wounded 13 extra in a rampage in Maine final fall, reported extreme injury in his mind—scarring, irritation, broken tissue, lacking white matter. The accidents possible contributed to his erratic and paranoid habits main as much as the October mass capturing. And it was nearly definitely his navy service — which included years as a grenade teacher—that led to his accidents.
What occurred to Card throughout his time within the navy represents a standard situation: a service member will get uncovered to numerous low-level blasts, similar to from throwing grenades, firing cannons, or breaching partitions. They report signs similar to cognitive impairment, sleep disturbances, panic assaults, despair, and/or reminiscence issues. Then they’re identified with a psychological well being or psychiatric situation and prescribed a cocktail of medicines, a lot of which come with terrible unintended effects.
This default—that the issue is considered one of psychological well being—has dominated the remedy of these in uniform for the reason that “shell-shocked” troopers of World Warfare I. However how a lot of what we’re seeing by way of PTSD and even veteran suicide is actually the results of damage to the mind?
The Pentagon at the moment requires service members to take particular person accountability for monitoring, reporting, and lowering their very own publicity to blasts—an strategy that has, at greatest, a average degree of feasibility. Signs of mind damage from low-level blasts may seem weeks, months, even years after publicity. They will additionally simply be confused with results of different service-related accidents.
Even amongst troopers who acknowledged that they’ve suffered a potential head or mind damage, solely half sought medical take care of a slew of causes, together with worries about hurting their navy careers.
Over the previous twenty years, the Protection Division has made a number of makes an attempt to raised observe and stop these accidents, with lackluster outcomes. It has issued steering on capturing limits, tried out blast gauges worn by troopers, proposed improved listening to safety. However efforts have been inconsistent or simply partial fixes. Rising applied sciences similar to implantable sensors to detect early indicators of damage are neither mature sufficient nor sensible for the battlefield.
Research additionally present that there’s inconsistent consciousness and compliance with the security tips that do exist.
Traditionally, the Pentagon has been sluggish to implement adjustments to guard service members from environmental dangers. As early as 1957, inside Dow Chemical Firm studies recommend that the navy was conscious that Agent Orange had probably carcinogenic results, and but it was used extensively in the course of the Vietnam Warfare from 1962-69. For the reason that first Gulf Warfare, the poisonous fumes from open-air incineration websites generally referred to as “burn pits” have been linked to respiratory diseases since at the least 2008. In 2019, at the least 9 burn pits have been nonetheless in operation. An estimated 3.5 million troops have suffered well being penalties.
On this case, the environmental impact isn’t chemical compounds or fumes, however damaging overpressure from explosions. The injury found in Mr. Card’s mind is by no stretch a singular occasion. Practically half 1,000,000 service members sustained a traumatic mind damage from 2000 to 2023 and numerous extra could have skilled sub-concussive, or microscopic, mind accidents with disastrous outcomes, as investigative journalists are starting to disclose. Publish-mortem examinations have discovered mind accidents to service members within the areas liable for decision-making, reminiscence, and reasoning. These studies ought to act as a warning, however it appears the Protection Division isn’t responding to the analysis.
Neither is it listening to bipartisan pleas from Congress. Simply final month at a Senate Armed Companies Committee listening to, a number of folks from inside and out of doors the Pentagon testified that progress isn’t being made rapidly sufficient and individuals are dying in consequence. The US has lots of of hundreds of veterans utilizing the VA to assist deal with their traumatic mind accidents. It has a disaster of suicides amongst service members and veterans pushed by insufficient screening for mind accidents. And now it has 31 civilians lifeless and injured in Maine.
The Pentagon’s response continues to be that it wants extra analysis, extra instruments, extra time. However it’s clear that the analysis is pointing to mind accidents as a significant well being drawback, within the navy and elsewhere. Extra instruments may assist the navy determine circumstances, however they will not accomplish the important: drastically reducing the publicity to blasts. As for time, the Pentagon has had loads.
Samantha McBirney is a biomedical engineer who has studied traumatic mind damage from blunt influence and blast overpressure for 15 years at RAND, UC Berkeley, and the College of Southern California. Emily Hoch is a senior coverage analyst at RAND, the place she and McBirney lead analysis on the well being impacts of blast accidents to service members.