The Ivy Division Forum
WELCOME to THE IVY DIVISION Message Forum I'm not sure that a forum like this is even needed nowadays since the advent of facebook, etc...but I hope that this once thriving BB does bring some of us back together again and that maybe some new folks will join us as well! 
THIS website is a private SUPPORT SITE for 4th ID veterans, active duty soldiers, family members, friends and everyone who supports our troops no matter how you feel about our leaders. Troublemakers, gossips. trolls, liars, etc are NOT welcome here. Posts that defame,, humiliate and/or intimidate other posters or the webmaster will be deleted without notice or comment. Please read the rules on the Main Page, thank you!
This forum has a long history, by interent standards anyway-unfortunately it has been abandoned for far too long due to real life circumstances knocking the heck out of what had been my very real desire to keep this board alive and well forever so that all of us could meet here and communicate with each other everyday.
Thank You for Visiting The Ivy Division.com!
Open 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Year
Friends of The Ivy Division
A.B.,HONORARY GRUNT!
jinks' www.vietnamvets.com messageboard
Jim Bury's Ivy Dragoons website
Redleg's 4ID Forum
Overblown?
VA chief should think twice
Published: May 30th, 2008 04:41 AM
Last Modified: May 30th, 2008 04:41 AM
Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake suggested during a visit to Quinhagak that concerns about post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, or TBI, are overblown.
He likened some of the head injuries to nothing more than any high school football player may have suffered when he got his bell rung during a game.
According to research published in the Journal of Athletic Training, from 1984 to 1999, 69 football players died of catastrophic head injuries, 63 in high school, six in college.
The point here is that likening the shock of an IED or the concussive blast of a car bomb to a football injury both trivializes the hazards of battle and ignores the hazards of football.
The brain doesn't care if it's rattled by a vicious hit on a pass route over the middle or a homemade bomb in Baghdad. Both can be deadly or disabling. Or not.
But the point that Secretary Peake should be making is that any combat vet experiencing any problems that might be related to a head injury should be checked out. Let's be sure there's no lasting damage. If there's not, fine. If there is, let's start treating it -- and make sure prompt treatment is there for any vet who seeks it.
Let's be clear: Most of the 1.6 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are not suffering from PTSD or TBI. But a Rand Corp. survey suggests that several hundred thousand may be.
Overblown? Not to any vet who's dealing with either PTSD or TBI. The VA chief needs to be a bell-clear advocate for those men or women.
BOTTOM LINE: James Peake should be urging vets to get checked out, not suggesting a concussion can be shrugged off.
