Joe Shearer, 40, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, said a mortar round knocked him down and made him vomit during fighting in Iraq in 2005, and that a roadside bomb later sent a shock wave through his body before headaches and sleeplessness set in for days. He said he was only recently diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. That’s the human bill for a war run from above: bodies thrown into blast zones, then sent back to patrol.
Who Pays for the War
Shearer said, "As long as you got back up and could go back on patrol, that’s kind of what you did." That line says plenty about the machinery. The system wanted him upright, useful, and silent. He said he came home at age 19, denied he had PTSD and didn’t know what a TBI was. Plagued by nightmares, sleeplessness and headaches, he initially turned to drugs to self-medicate and considered suicide. He later got help for PTSD, but it took years for him to consider that he suffered traumatic brain injuries.
Shearer said he still struggles with dizziness, migraines and forgetting daily tasks and responsibilities to his wife and children. He was working for the Wounded Warrior Project and screening fellow vets for TBIs when he realized he checked many of the same boxes. He has since been diagnosed and received treatment, but he still has vertigo, light sensitivity and memory lapses. "I know that some of that stuff is stereotypical, but for me, it’s got a different ring to it," he said. "There will be no memory of the conversation happening."
The Injury Count Keeps Rising
The AP report said nearly 700 U.S. service members have been wounded by drone and missile attacks on bases in the Middle East and other fighting, and that most have experienced traumatic brain injuries and returned to duty, according to public statements from military officials. Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell last month called the vast majority of injuries over a two-week period "minor concussions." That’s the language of an apparatus trying to shrink damage with a phrase. Doctors can’t predict who may have lasting effects from a TBI, and repeated blows increase the chances of lasting problems, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
Dr. David Okonkwo, a University of Pittsburgh brain trauma specialist, said it’s imperative that people recover from a concussion before doing activities that put them at increased risk of another. Dr. James Kelly, an emeritus professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and chief medical scientist at the Invisible Wounds Foundation, said, "The blast wave itself can be injurious," and added, "It’s a different cellular injury. Blast is a different thing than a blunt injury to the head."
Screening After the Damage
The AP report said Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the care wounded troops received after an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait that killed six U.S. soldiers early in the war. Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin pressed the military in a letter on Wednesday to release the findings of its investigation into the March 1 attack. Baldwin said in a statement, "I spoke directly with Wisconsinites who sustained traumatic brain injuries from (President Donald) Trump’s war in Iran and went weeks without so much as a screening, let alone specialized care, for their injuries."
Defense Health Agency spokesman Peter Graves said in an email that "it is policy that service members are screened for TBI." The policy exists on paper. The injuries, the delays, and the suffering exist in flesh.
The AP report said more than 500,000 service members were diagnosed with TBIs between 2000 and 2025, with 82% of cases considered mild and not all of them related to combat. Advocates believe the injuries could still be undercounted because symptoms often overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions. Frank Sonntag, 75, of Queen Creek, Arizona, said he experienced memory loss after a TBI from a mortar blast in Iraq in 2004. He said it took 30 minutes to write an email, colleagues told him he spoke one word every 10 seconds, and he considered suicide before being diagnosed after he got lost driving home. Neurologists prescribed medication for his migraines, among other treatments. "Speech therapy was one of the greatest things I had," Sonntag said. "They taught me how to practice the words I was speaking and how to put sentences together again."
Kelly Parker, director of independent services at the Wounded Warrior Project, said, "If you’ve seen one TBI, you’ve seen one TBI." She said screening, early treatment and support can be crucial to returning to a more normal life, and that physical, speech and art therapies can lead to improvements. "There’s still so much we don’t know about the brain, but one thing that we do know is it can heal itself," Parker said. "We know that new neural pathways can be created, and we absolutely believe that the brain can adapt. We’ve seen it happen."
What the War Leaves Behind
Army veteran Spencer Milo, 41, of Parker, Colorado, said he has dealt with migraines, seizures and forgetfulness after a first TBI in Iraq in 2008, when his Humvee smashed into a wall to evade fire, and a second from the blast of a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2011. "I’ve had fellow service members that were even with me on those days, and they’re like, ‘Dude, why can’t you just kick it?’" Milo said. "I really wish it was that simple. It’s tough because when you can’t see something, it’s hard to believe that it’s really there."
Americans are increasingly concerned about the war in Iran and its potential to bring more chaos to the Middle East, while veterans say the conflict’s toll on troops includes traumatic brain injuries that can linger for years. The Reuters poll story said Americans are bracing for more chaos in the Middle East as the war in Iran drags on, but the source text available here did not include the poll’s numerical findings. The people making the decisions talk in abstractions. The people living with the blast waves live with the rest.