A total of 64 U.S. service members have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries as a result of the Jan. 8 Iranian missile strike — some of them may be eligible for Purple Hearts.
It is up to each individual service branch to determine, but service members who sustain injuries caused by enemy action and are treated by a medical doctor meet the basic requirements for the award. For certain branches, there is also a requirement that the service member missed at least 48 hours of duty as a result of the injury.
14 additional American service members injured in Iranian missile strike
"That's a question for each of the services of the affected members, and so I have not gotten an update of the timeline...but that process is going to play out," said Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan R. Hoffman at a Pentagon briefing on Monday.
The criteria for Purple Hearts awarded for mild traumatic brain injuries and concussions was updated in April of 2011 to include the requirement that the injury be treated by a medical officer. DoD officials said at the time that, as we learn more and more about traumatic brain injuries, "guidance" for Purple Heart awards will "evolve." In response to the updated criteria, DoD launched a review of all injuries suffered since Sept. 11, 2001.
“The services are not able to speculate as to how many service members may have received a mild TBI or concussion but did not seek or receive medical treatment,” DoD spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said. “Therefore, each military department will establish its retroactive review procedures in the near future to ensure deserving servicemembers are appropriately recognized.”
These "unseen wounds" of war are still being examined in various studies across both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Defense Secretary says TBI 'is an injury we need to keep educating everybody about.'
“The TBI piece is different … The overpressures and the injuries to the brain, the unseen wounds of war for example, those can be serious or they can be not so serious, it depends on the individual, it depends on the proximity to the blast,” Gen. Mark. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a Pentagon brief last week.
“This is an injury we need to keep educating everybody about – the Hill, all of you, the American people and even myself. It’s a learning process for many of us,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during the same briefing.
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