Army fights combat wear and tear

FORT DRUM — During a year-long deployment to Iraq, Sgt. Jesse R. Montgomery estimates he was in the vicinity of more than 30 ear-piercing explosions.

When he returned to Fort Drum in 2007, he appeared fine, but he was actually missing one thing.

"People would talk to me and I couldn't hear a thing they were saying," he said. "I found myself reading lips."

On Thursday, the 27-year-old from Limestone, Cattaraugus County, was fitted for a hearing aid at the Audiology and Hearing Conservation office on Fort Drum.

Capt. David G. Pederson, the chief of Audiology and Hearing Conservation, said about 75 percent of the soldiers he sees on Fort Drum have some kind of high-frequency hearing loss.

"It's mainly because of noise exposure," Capt. Pederson said. "That ranges from anything from improvised explosive devices, bombs, generators, jet aircraft to road and truck noise."

Hearing loss is not the only wear-and-tear wound that soldiers deal with. While most public attention is given to soldiers missing limbs or suffering behavioral problems, almost all soldiers return from combat with some physical ailment.

"Ultimately, when they come back they say their knees or back is bothering them from carrying so much weight," said Maj. Christopher A. Waring, the chief of physical therapy on Fort Drum. "But they put up with it while they are deployed and they get it fixed when they get back."

Maj. Waring said soldiers who do have injuries, such as muscle aches and pains, receive physical therapy that will help them stay a part of their unit.

The treatments are designed to work together with the training a soldier is required to do. Each soldier also is given a profile, which can set limitations on what he or she should or should not do physically because of an injury.

COMBAT INJURIES

It is common for a soldier to daily carry about 100 pounds of gear during a deployment. In Afghanistan, that is further complicated by the rugged terrain and limited road infrastructure. These heavy loads have been cited as the cause of many knee and back-related injuries that soldiers suffer.

Deployed soldiers have access to occupational and physical therapy, but delaying care for an injury is common if it means a soldier can stay with his or her unit for the remainder of a deployment.

"Soldiers want to be down range and when they are unable to do that, they see themselves as the weak part of the unit. They are dependent on each other and they don't want to leave," said Capt. Dewayne D. Bramlett, the chief of occupational therapy on Fort Drum. "We do everything we can to keep a soldier down range. As often as we can, we keep them in the fight."

Capt. Bramlett specializes in hand therapy and says that when a brigade returns from a deployment, about 20 percent of soldiers have some kind of hand injury.

He worked with a mechanic who had fractured his wrist about eight months into a deployment, but stayed with his unit and ignored his injury for the next four months.

"The sooner you identify an injury, the better the outcome," he said. "If a soldier goes four months without care, that's a decision they'll have to deal with in the years to come."

Capt. Bramlett said that the command leadership now sees the importance of allowing soldiers to fully heal before allowing them back into the fight. Through the profile system, which is based on a medical evaluation of what a soldier can physically handle, those in command on the combat side are more aware of what the soldier needs.

"I've seen a huge shift since the beginning of the global war on terror toward taking care of the soldier," said Capt. Bramlett. "We are seeing more compassion in supporting the soldiers' health."

INJURIES BACK HOME

As an occupational therapist, Capt. Bramlett makes sure a soldier can function on the job and at home. He helps soldiers, such as Capt. Kim-Cameron A. King, who wasn't injured during combat, get back to soldiering.

Last year, eight days before Capt. King was set to deploy for 15 months with the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters to Iraq, he was on his way to Massachusetts to visit family. While driving his motorcycle through Chatham, he hit a 600-pound bull moose and broke all the bones in his left arm, several ribs and tore apart his right knee.

After four months of in-patient care, Capt. King returned to Fort Drum and was reassigned to the 3rd Battalion, 85th Infantry, Warrior Transition Unit.

As part of the occupational therapy, Capt. Bramlett has set weekly goals for Capt. King — one week's goal was to do 10 push-ups. Next will be being able to complete a physical training test, without any limitations, which will include running, push-ups and sit-ups.

To move forward and ensure that soldiers are physically ready for combat, it means a revamping the current physical training manual. As it stands, physical training is about performing for a yearly test — not about being able to jump, climb, twist, bend and maneuver in an urban setting.

"The old style of physical training was to pass the yearly test and that does not train them for what they do in a combat zone," said Maj. Waring. "There needs to be job-specific training to help change the mindset of morning physical training."

While the Army is rewriting the physical training manual, individual installations are taking steps to ensure that soldiers are preparing for combat properly.

At Fort Drum, that change in training is called the Tactical Athlete. This kind of physical training focuses on flexibility, strength and endurance. It also means that soldiers can focus on preparing for combat, rather than training to pass a fitness test.

"Soldiers are the pro-athletes for the military and the better they are, the better they will perform," said Capt. Bramlett. "As we continue to stay in this operational tempo, we need to train them as tactical athletes and we need to train for that."