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September 7, 2008 Wounded veterans need every nickel of our support
As a youngster growing up in Muskegon, I was a big Joe Louis fan. Black men were not allowed to play most professional sports, so the Brown Bomber was one black athlete man that white kids could admire. And it didn’t hurt that I was born in Detroit.
Boxing was big back then. I followed the exploits of Kenny Lane, a Muskegon native, and Chuck Davey, an MSU alumni and Olympic fighter. Some of us would occasionally go to the Catholic Youth Organization gym and watch the Golden Glove contenders work out or take in a match or two.
I didn’t box much myself. I tried, but a couple pops on my beezer convinced me I should seek out sports that required more finesse than endurance and a high tolerance for pain. But I was a fan.
What was somewhat disquieting to me then was the presence at the gym of an older fighter (he was probably in his early forties) who had a cauliflower ear and was a bit punch drunk. The coaches treated him with respect and he was said to have been a smart, up and coming boxer who fell a little short. I attributed his problems to not keeping his guard up.
My enthusiasm for boxing eventually wore off. I finally concluded that for two men with no gripes against each other and in peak physical condition to stand toe to toe and try to scatter each other’s mental marbles was insanely brutal. I confess that, even after my interest in boxing had waned, I was a fan of Mohammad Ali, so it was doubly disturbing when he became a victim of the activity for which he was so highly admired. It reminded me of that old fighter at the CYO gym. My disenchantment was complete.
We’ve learned much about head injuries since then. While the skull can take much abuse, the intricate wiring of the brain and the hearing mechanism are much more fragile than we once thought. We now know that repeated seemingly minor trauma, such as concussions or loud noises, and trauma that can’t be immediately discerned can eventually have a major impact on thinking and hearing, even years after the initial shock.
And we are going to learn much more about head injuries. Young men and women in our military have been subjected to nightmares of explosions and small arms fire, which can exact a considerable toll. Most in combat are issued ear plugs, but those plugs can limit the ability to detect sources of hostile fire, so some don’t wear them. It takes just a few minutes of fire from an automatic weapon to have an impact – a permanent impact – on someone’s hearing.
The Department of Veterans Affairs reports that 70,000 people returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are afflicted with tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears, usually associated with hearing loss. There is no current cure for tinnitus.
Those who were victims of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) face even more dire circumstances. A friend and former colleague of mine was recently appointed by Governor Granholm to alert the medical community about the high incidence of returning veterans with Traumatic Brain Syndrome. Manfred told me that it frequently takes two to three years for the full impact of brain trauma to become apparent. And the Veterans Administration, with its limited funding, has had a tendency to attribute problems to post-combat events, thus denying needy veterans the eligibility for subsidized care.
And a recent article in USA Today revealed that men and women with combat head and neck injuries without very obvious disability are frequently sent back to battle, thus exacerbating injuries that may not become manifest for months or years.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has estimated that over 50,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are permanently disabled. Many will require help that costing millions of dollars each over a lifetime. We have asked them to do a nasty job, often without sufficient protection, and they have complied with honor and dignity. We owe them every nickel they need for their proper support and care.