FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) — The war in Iran is now entering its sixth month, and the number of wounded U.S. service members continues to climb.
According to the Defense Department, 653 U.S. troops have been wounded since the conflict began.
A new report reviewed by ABC News details how those troops were injured during the early weeks of the war. The findings, first reported by The War Horse, show that traumatic brain injuries (TBI) have emerged as the leading injury, with Army soldiers accounting for most of the casualties.
“Our men and women on those lines. They know what they’ve signed up for. But when they get home, they expect to be supported,” said Aleta Chambers, adjutant and treasurer of Disabled American Veterans in Fayetteville.
That support is at the heart of the Fayetteville chapter’s mission. “We help them file their paperwork. We help them make sure they have all the supporting documents so that they have a fully developed claim and then it goes through the system as quickly as possible,” Chambers said.
Chambers, an Air Force veteran who volunteers three days a week, has witnessed how combat injuries can follow veterans long after they leave the battlefield. “It’s very painful to watch the veterans actually going through these issues and trying to heal. And then they also have to fight for their benefits through a different window. So that’s why we’re here to advocate and support for them.”
The report details troop injuries from the start of the war through the second week of April, when the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire.
Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs indicates that veterans with TBIs are nearly twice as likely to die by suicide.
Casualties by Military Rank
More than 270 of the roughly 400 casualties were Army soldiers.
Among them, 64 Army officers, including 20 captains and 13 lieutenant colonels were wounded
Records show that in the opening hours of the war on March 1, there were 91 casualties with another 70 on March 18, far above the daily average of roughly 14 wounded
Those two incidents account for 40 percent of the casualties in the dataset.
The March 18 spike came a day after the U.S. killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, in an airstrike. The records also reveal that two generals suffered head injuries on March 1. Notably, casualties in this conflict are skewing older than in other wars.
What is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?
Dr. Scott Klenzak, program director of psychiatry at Cape Fear Valley, explained, “A traumatic brain injury is when the brain is injured through trauma. And so the brain can be injured in lots of ways in the military with the big bombs going off on the military bases over there in the Middle East during the Iran war, depending on how close you are to the bomb going off, you can have a blast injury and sometimes you get shrapnel and get a physical injury.Depending on how close you are to the bomb going off, you can have a blast injury, and sometimes you get shrapnel and get a physical injury. But oftentimes it just affects the brain. And so you can’t see it, but you can definitely feel it.”
Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury
Dr. Scott Klenzak said, “The immediate symptoms are very similar to a concussion. And so you’re going to have confusion, disorientation, you’re going to have one.”
The effects of TBI can be long-lasting. “It’s very silent. You don’t know it, but the accumulates people can get what we call frontal lobe damage or damage to their executive functions. They can have personality changes. It can be subtle or it can be very stark.”
Recovery from a traumatic brain injury can take up to a year, according to Dr. Klenzak. He said the best treatment is rest and avoiding a second head injury during recovery.
Eighteen U.S. troops have been killed in action during the war in Iran so far.
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Penelope Lopez
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