View Full Version : One-Third of Injuries in Iraq, Afghanistan Not From Combat
Darwin Awards Pending?? :mad:
WTF are they doing???
One-Third of Injuries in Iraq, Afghanistan Not From Combat: Study
Stars and Stripes 31 May 2018 By Nancy Montgomery
More than a third of some 30,000 soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan were hurt in noncombat incidents such as falls and vehicle crashes, a new study has found.
The study, published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Surgery, also found that more than 10 percent of troops killed in those conflicts died of noncombat injuries. The proportion of nonbattle injuries remained relatively stable over the 2003-2014 time frame covered.
Lead researcher Dr. Tuan D. Le of the Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, said the study -- which aimed to quantify nonbattle injuries and characterize them -- is important for understanding how to prevent or reduce injuries during deployments.
Nonbattle injuries, or NBI, may "deplete medical resources, increase costs, decrease mission capabilities, and result in long-term disability for injured service members," Le wrote.
"During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, NBI has continued to be a significant burden," the study's authors wrote. They noted that previous research using more than a decade of aeromedical evacuation records showed that a third of Army medical evacuations during deployment were a result of noncombat injuries.
The rate of noncombat hospitalizations was higher than in the Vietnam War, with 13 percent, and the Gulf War, with 25 percent.
"Despite the historical burden of NBI, research has focused primarily on the incidence and prevention of battle injury," the study said.
Using the Defense Department Trauma Registry for data on 29,958 service members injured from 2003 to 2014 in Iraq and Afghanistan and evacuated to a hospital, the researchers found that NBI accounted for 34.1 percent of all injuries and 11.5 percent of all deaths of troops admitted to a military medical facility.
link to article (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/05/31/one-third-injuries-iraq-afghanistan-not-combat-study.html)
The Reaper
05-31-2018, 09:12
Darwin Awards Pending?? :mad:
WTF are they doing???
Being young kids with dangerous toys.
TR
Most wars throughout human history produce a roster of non-battle related casualties that meet or exceed the actual combat deaths.
When troops didn't have golf-carts, ATV's, snowmobiles, and high-center trucks to drive, they died of illness and disease.
In fact, there are a few reports out there somewhere that show a hell of a lot of combat related deaths in the last 70 years prior to the GWOT could have been prevented with a little bit better understanding of the importance and application of self-aid/buddy-aid
WarriorDiplomat
05-31-2018, 18:21
Being young kids with dangerous toys.
TR
Yep.......just watch how guys drive the RAZR, ATV's, and everything else we have while here in garrison under the flag pole is but a taste of how reckless people are in boring battle zones. Deployed especially with SF guys driving their toys in front of conventional and support types on a FOB reminded me of the teen with the hot rod driving around high school showing off.....there was an incident in 2012? in Mali where a drunk CA team wrecked an auto with prostitutes in a river or ditch and drowned the whole team and who knows how many there have been around the world.
Basenshukai
05-31-2018, 20:45
In 2011, when I was assigned to CJSOTF-A, we received support from the US Army NG by way of an attached infantry battalion. The platoons were to then be broken up to support the various VSO teams (then referred to as “Village Stability Platforms”, though the name didn’t really take).
As the very first of these soldiers arrived at BAF - literally on the hour their transport aircraft landed - I got a phone call indicating that one of them had been seriously injured. I immediately thought that perhaps the oftentimes inaccurate Taliban rocket fire upon the airfield had finally hit its mark. It was odd that the IDF alarm had not sounded, I thought.
However, further reporting yielded that the NG soldier thought it would be a good idea to exit the bus, which had taken them from the aircraft to the reception area, via the rear bus window instead. He fell on his head and also managed to break an arm. I’m sure this stunt will get him at least a 20% disability.
Texas_Shooter
06-01-2018, 17:07
However, further reporting yielded that the NG soldier thought it would be a good idea to exit the bus, which had taken them from the aircraft to the reception area, via the rear bus window instead. He fell on his head and also managed to break an arm. I’m sure this stunt will get him at least a 20% disability.
You can't fix stupid
Line of Duty = NO, due to own misconduct.
WarriorDiplomat
06-02-2018, 08:35
In 2011, when I was assigned to CJSOTF-A, we received support from the US Army NG by way of an attached infantry battalion. The platoons were to then be broken up to support the various VSO teams (then referred to as “Village Stability Platforms”, though the name didn’t really take).
As the very first of these soldiers arrived at BAF - literally on the hour their transport aircraft landed - I got a phone call indicating that one of them had been seriously injured. I immediately thought that perhaps the oftentimes inaccurate Taliban rocket fire upon the airfield had finally hit its mark. It was odd that the IDF alarm had not sounded, I thought.
However, further reporting yielded that the NG soldier thought it would be a good idea to exit the bus, which had taken them from the aircraft to the reception area, via the rear bus window instead. He fell on his head and also managed to break an arm. I’m sure this stunt will get him at least a 20% disability.
Now see that is the sort of impulsive irrational behavior that makes the infantry tick with young men not yet matured completely that LTG Gregory Newbold spoke of.
https://warontherocks.com/2015/09/what-tempers-the-steel-of-an-infantry-unit/
According to research most average male brains do not mature its impulse control until around age 25 but the same area the pre frontal and frontal cortex of the brain where the executive function resides is the area that does not fully develop until this age.....I wonder how many of our guys have had this damaged from training and combat and then their are the extremely young X-rays the 19-20yr olds a good fit to send out to train a group of locals especially if an irrational impulsive desire hits them??
The Civil War was pretty bad.
"For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease. "
There's an interesting graph about 30% down that shows Union deaths by state; disease Vs KIA.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties
The Civil War helped set off America’s opiate epidemic. The Union Army alone issued nearly 10 million opium pills to its soldiers, plus 2.8 million ounces of opium powders and tinctures. An unknown number of soldiers returned home addicted, or with war wounds that opium relieved. “Even if a disabled soldier survived the war without becoming addicted, there was a good chance he would later meet up with a hypodermic-wielding physician,” Courtright wrote. The hypodermic syringe, introduced to the United States in 1856 and widely used to deliver morphine by the 1870s, played an even greater role, argued Courtwright in Dark Paradise. “Though it could cure little, it could relieve anything,” he wrote. “Doctors and patients alike were tempted to overuse.”
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-story-americas-19th-century-opiate-addiction-180967673/#Qa9LLbGSj6m7Vzx5.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
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The study also found that noncombat injuries were almost twice as high for women than men and that the Air Force and Navy had higher proportions of accidental injuries than the Army.
That would be my wife missing the foot step getting out of a MLTV and dislocating her hip just before leaving IRAQ.
G2squared
06-02-2018, 22:21
Not sure why this needed a "New Study". Young, not much life exp and surplus of testosterone and ego. Add "The Devil's Playground" and let stew unsupervised... It's akin to "Hey guys! Hold my beer and watch this!" without the beer...
Hope he didn't get an Excellence narrative on his OER for that BS study!
Basenshukai
06-03-2018, 10:27
Hope he didn't get an Excellence narrative on his OER for that BS study!
Dr. Le is not an Army officer. He is a civilian doctor working in the US Army Institute of Surgical Research. Their research aims to arrive at conclusions leading to the effective apportionment of combat casualty care, among other things. They do all sorts of studies. Some are more interesting than others. Some, you’ll find more useful than others. Such is the nature of medical research.
WarriorDiplomat
06-03-2018, 18:29
Dr. Le is not an Army officer. He is a civilian doctor working in the US Army Institute of Surgical Research. Their research aims to arrive at conclusions leading to the effective apportionment of combat casualty care, among other things. They do all sorts of studies. Some are more interesting than others. Some, you’ll find more useful than others. Such is the nature of medical research.
I wonder if they have done a study on the genesis of these problems that could be preventable i.e. quality over quantity of troops on the ground though I will concede that the lack of quantity could cause the quality to deteriorate but there is a balance....recruiters can't meet numbers now even with the above soldiers
Airbornelawyer
06-03-2018, 19:55
The Civil War was pretty bad.
"For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease. "
There's an interesting graph about 30% down that shows Union deaths by state; disease Vs KIA.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties
***
In the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, total deaths were 13,283, of which only 1,733 were battle deaths. In the Spanish-American war, it was 385 battle deaths out of 2,446 total deaths. Both conflicts where we were not acclimated to the combat zone and where medical services were likely poor.
I suspect that injuries are fairly constant, since boys will be boys, but illnesses, both fatal and non-fatal, have dropped precipitously due to improved medical care.
According to the DCAS, accidental deaths fell to a low of 27.4 per 100,000 serving in 1997, but have remained in the 28-40 per 100,000 range since 1990. Their data is from 1980 to 2010. See: dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/report_number_serve.xhtml
Ive seen a lot of people get hurt from noncombat injuries while I was deployed. I got a TBI both in Iraq and Afghanistan but the TBI in Afghanistan was my fault (tripped backwards off an RG33).
In Afghanistan we had dirt bikes, ATVs, side by side, polaris RZR, and horses too (not very friendly horses I might add). Damn I miss it. I almost envied the Taliban because they could go home and get laid, then go back out and fight. Perfect setup.