Causey was a part of the 760th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, a team dedicated to finding and disarming IEDs. The bomb he was checking out that day turned out to be a decoy—a “hoax device,” soldiers called it—which meant the real ones were still nearby.
Tag: soldiers
Technique Could Preserve Fertility for Wounded Soldiers
Soldiers who suffer lower-body injuries on the battlefield may benefit from a technique to preserve their fertility, a small study suggests.
An Unspoken Peril For Our Injured Troops: Infertility
A 2008 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 15 percent of soldiers deployed in Iraq suffered an injury that involved loss of consciousness, a figure that extrapolates out to 480,000 affected Iraq veterans. Such injuries, often from roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), can cause a kind of injury often left un-discussed: Infertility.
For Soldiers, Sperm Banking Could be the New Flack Jacket
An upsurge of genital injuries amongst Afghanistan vets is becoming the new “signature wound” of the war. But soldiers arriving home with these injuries have drawn attention to the lack of government support for in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination using donated sperm, which costs up to $7,000 per procedure.
A new policy highlights these grievances, as reported by the Huffington Post:
The policy authorizes payment for some reproductive procedures for the first time, including limited in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. But it also specifically excludes covering males who cannot produce sperm. “Third-party donations and surrogacy are not covered benefits,” the policy states firmly.
The average age of soldiers with genital wounds is 24, and the majority of them are married.
Since 2005, at least 1,875 American troops have suffered genital wounds, including 51 so far this year. They are among the 34,440 American battle casualties caused by roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, a grim toll that includes over 3,000 dead and 31,394 wounded through May, according to the most recent Defense Department data.