LEGACIES

I returned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC in military-speak) to teach my once-a-year class earlier this month.  It was the first time I’d been there since Brian’s death.  I didn’t realize how emotional an experience it would be until I had cleared security and was heading towards the main hospital.  Suddenly surrounded by Army uniforms, I found myself struggling against tears.  Again.

In the civilian world, military uniforms are uncommon, even so close to that hub of military might, the Pentagon.  Commuters riding the Metro (subway) near certain stops will encounter them, but in suburban Virginia, they stand out. That fact is a reminder of what a very small percentage of the population belongs to our warrior class.  It is altogether too easy to forget our service members, to not notice their presence among us.

But at Walter Reed I come face to face with the awful realities of war: a campus inhabited by earnest, awesomely fit, beautiful young people ready to go off to war side by side with those recovering from grievous injuries received in that war.  The first group strides around beneath the blossoming trees, or ambles casually across the greening lawns.  The second moves more hesitantly, favoring wounded limbs, or navigates by wheelchair, bodies shockingly truncated by amputations below muscular torsos.   I had become accustomed to that sight in years past,  but see it fresh again.

Brian Bradshaw Memorial High Ropes Course

One of the legacies created with funds donated after Brian’s death is a “high ropes course” at Camp Hamilton near where Brian grew up (http://seattleoyyam.org/?page_id=133#HighRopes).  That kind of athletic endeavor was something Brian loved to do, and the ropes course is a fitting tribute to him, but seeing a double amputees at Walter Reed, I grieve for each young person’s loss.  Many athletic activities will be impossible or require adaptive equipment and determined extra effort for them now.

Korean battle amputees learn to walk again with artificial limbs at the 3rd ROKA Annex Hospital, Pusan, Korea. Photo by Cpl. Alex Pobudinsky. 01/23/1952.

Some of them participated in the Paralympics (http://usparalympics.org/or http://www.vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/) that just wrapped up last week in Vancouver following  the “regular” Olympics.  (Thank you, NPR, for providing a bit of news coverage of that.)

There is another class of injury that is much less visible and often harder to overcome:  traumatic brain injury.  Explosive devices (IEDs) are a favorite tactic of the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Troops may survive a blast, may even appear unharmed.  But the force of the blast may have the same effect as a blow to their head.  Later, symptoms can appear ranging from mild forgetfulness to substantial personality changes to significant cognitive impairment.  Amazing work is being done in developing prosthetics to replace missing arms and legs.  A lot less is known about how to repair an injured brain.  In a report prepared for the Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, the authors (Carlson, Kehle, Meis et al.) were unable to locate any published studies of how to assess or treat individuals with both traumatic brain injury and PTSD.  A web search for material on TBI leads to reports with phases like, “little is known,” “few studies are available,” deficits are significant and permanent.”  In a normal year, 80,000 people will suffer some form of TBI.  That number is much higher when the results of our military actions are added.

Long after these wars have reached whatever conclusion happens, the men and women who fought those wars for our country will continue to fight daily battles with their “legacies.”  They have earned a debt we can never repay, but it must begin with ensuring that they receive more than adequate care.  Remember that the next time your Congressman/woman votes on a budget including the VA.

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© Touched by the War: A Journey From Oblivion to Awareness 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Martha M. Gillis and Touched by the War with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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