{"id":5540,"date":"2020-01-25T18:49:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T22:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=5540"},"modified":"2020-01-25T18:49:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T22:49:47","slug":"how-did-the-pentagon-overlook-the-traumatic-brain-injuries-when-they-claimed-no-casualties-after-rocket-attack-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=5540","title":{"rendered":"How did the Pentagon overlook the ‘traumatic brain injuries’ when they claimed no casualties after rocket attack in Iraq?"},"content":{"rendered":"

34 troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iranian rocket attack according to Pentagon update<\/h1>\n

Meghann Myers
\nMilitary Times<\/p>\n

Nearly three dozen U.S. service members have been diagnosed with\u00a0traumatic brain injuries<\/a>\u00a0following a Jan. 7 missile barrage on an Iraqi base housing\u00a0coalition forces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Up from the Defense Department\u2019s\u00a0initial report of zero injuries<\/a>, a total of 34 troops experienced lingering headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light, nausea and other symptoms after the assault on al-Asad Air Base, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these symptoms, they are late developing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey manifest over a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While service members were initially screened for concussion following the blasts, more than 30 continued to experience symptoms throughout the last two weeks. In total, 16 were treated on site in Iraq, one was transported to Kuwait for treatment and has since returned to duty, while 17 were flown to U.S. facilities in Landstuhl, Germany.<\/p>\n

As of Friday morning, Hoffman added, eight of those have returned to the U.S., either to be treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, or at their duty stations\u2019 base hospitals.<\/p>\n

Though TBIs have been the most numerous injury among American troops throughout the War on Terror, the reporting of the injuries at al-Asad prompted Defense Secretary Mark Esper last week to order a review of how a chain of command is notified of injuries in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reporting on symptoms vs. diagnosis, the reporting on that \u2014 we needed to have more clarity,\u201d Hoffman said.<\/p>\n

Illness and injury among troops serving abroad is tracked in several ways, with different notification requirements. The defense secretary, for instance, would not be informed of troops showing symptoms or even being diagnosed with TBI, but an update would go out if they were flown off-site and thus taken out of the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reporting did not come up until they were actually evacuating the area and taken to Germany,\u201d Hoffman said of the al-Asad casualties.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, U.S. troops have resumed the anti-ISIS mission in Iraq.<\/p>\n

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\"President<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Though tensions between the U.S. and Iran have settled, leaders have warned the the country\u2019s activities in Iraq still pose a threat to U.S. troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ve been deployed for about nine months now and in the time that I\u2019ve been there, we\u2019ve had a couple of casualties that have been caused by conflict with ISIS on the ground, where some of our service members, certainly Iraqi Security Forces or Syrian Democratic Forces have suffered casualties, but most of the attacks against coalition forces in Iraq have come from elements of the Iranian threat network,\u201d Maj. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, deputy commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the U.S. killing of Iran\u2019s Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iran\u2019s retaliation in Iraq, President Trump has called on NATO to contribute more forces to the anti-ISIS mission, though leaders have said no moves are underway to build up or draw down U.S. forces in the country.<\/p>\n

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\nhttps:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/24\/34-troops-suffered-traumatic-brain-injuries-in-iranian-rocket-attack-according-to-pentagon-update\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

34 troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iranian rocket attack according to Pentagon update<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}