Some Soldiers Never Fully Come Home
By Jack Hammond
Sometimes when our nation’s warriors return home from war, they don’t make it all the way. We’re familiar with the physical signs of unimaginable trauma when legs and arms are amputated. But for the hundreds of thousands of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who received traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) from explosions and other concussive injuries, their wounds remain invisible to the public.
Four decades of military and private sector experience have provided me with a front-row seat to our government’s failure to address TBI, PTSD, and the related epidemic of veteran suicides. This unique vantage point is based on multiple combat commands in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and a decade of work at a leading academic medical center developing innovative models of care and treatment programs for mental health and brain injury.
The evidence is clear – a new comprehensive national strategy for TBI is required for our veterans, to include suicide and the related comorbid injuries.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2022/08/27/some_soldiers_never_fully_come_home_850392.html