Heavy Rucks
"Ya don't git combat pay'cause ya don't fight"
--Bill Mauldin
Boy, you gonna carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
--Cary That Weight, The Beatles
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The Army is looking at the heavy combat loads carried by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, mainly because it is increasing their "non-deployable rates" -- soldiers sidelined due to stress injuries. The Army reported 257,000 acute orthopedic injuries in 2007, up from 247,000 the previous year (Weight of Combat Gear is Taking Toll.)
"You can't hump a rucksack at 8,000 to 11,000 feet for 15 months, even at a young age, and not have that have an impact on your body, and we are seeing an increase in muscular-skeletal issues"
"Individual Marine combat loads -- including protective gear, weapons, ammunition, water, food and communications gear -- range from 97 to 135 pounds, well over the recommended 50 pounds, a 2007 Navy study found."
"In Afghanistan, soldiers routinely carry loads of 130 to 150 pounds for three-day missions"
The Army's concern is that it keep troop levels up. However, we should also be looking longitudinally at the impact of these loads on lifetime muscular-skeletal problems among veterans. How will a soldier prove ten years out of service that his chronic back and knee pain was caused by his humping a rucksack combat load?
Unless the injury is documented while on Active Duty, future problems will not be adjudicated service-connected. Ranger's advice to all combat arms soldiers: Get spinal and knee exams before leaving Active Duty. Cover your ass before you leave the service, because the Department of Veterans Affairs is not your momma.
Your future welfare may hinge on it.
Labels: heavy combat loads, rucksack weight
posted by rangeragainstwar at 9:20 AM
4 Comments:
"Ranger's advice to all combat arms soldiers: Get spinal and knee exams before leaving Active Duty."
Actually, I would recommend a full orthopedic baseline check before going active duty, and then followed up by a post orthopedic comparative check to the baseline.
Either way, gentlemen, as the Ranger says, "Cover your ass before you leave the service, because the Department of Veterans Affairs is not your momma."
Nothing says "job limitation" like a pair of messed up knees.
But be advised that the Army is unlikely to a) perform it for you or b) accept it from a civilian doc.
I went to a civilian orthopod after 20 years in, when my knees were so painful after PT that I walked around with two ice bags acewrapped to my kneecaps and gobbled 800mg Motrins for a day and a half straight. He ran some simple orthostatics and an x-ray and told me that in his draft board days he would no more have accepted me for an infantry or infantry-support MOS than he would have voted for me as President. Turns out I have a congenital knee malformation that makes distance running or walking and carrying heavy ruck loads the very worst thing I could have done (to say nothing of parachute jumping and the other general line-medic sorts of fun...)
I was able to use his diagnosis to get an L3 profile, but to this day I have get no disability. My exit physical was notional.
No brain, no pain, I suppose...
Chief,
Very sorry to hear of your adjudication on your knees. That seems very unfair.
Sheerahkahn,
I know Jim is glad you apprecitae his delicate turn of phrase. You go him one better by suggesting the baseline check prior to and at release from service.
Sheerahkhan,
Your cmts are solid BUT the DVA would most likely not use a private physicians exam. Usually only service records and VA compensation and pension exams are admitted as evidence in service connected squabbles.
The dudes joining the Infantry and combat arms PROBABLY don't have money for private visits to Doctors for pre -entry physicals. I know this is a generalization BUT....
To Chief,
I'm a donor so you can have my knees when I pass .I want my knees to go to the needy.I 'd like to see them go to an Airborne troop even if he's not 18 series.
jim
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