Team Infidel
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Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
November 29, 2008
By Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH--Spc. Edward Bennett helped detect and detonate roadside bombs in Iraq for almost a year before he realized something was wrong.
Dizzy spells. Memory lapses. Slight coordination problems.
A brain scan revealed that Bennett suffered from traumatic brain injury, one of the signature combat wounds of the Iraq war.
Bennett, a member of the Virginia National Guard's 237th Engineer Battalion, was flown to Germany in June for treatment, then spent two months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Now, even though he's still on active duty and getting treatment, Bennett, 22, is once again living at home with his wife in Virginia Beach.
He is assigned to one of the Army's eight community-based warrior transition units. Bennett happens to live within a few miles of Camp Pendleton, a state military reservation that's home to one of the units. Most of the 200 other soldiers assigned to the unit live hours away in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina.
Soldiers are required to check in daily by phone with their platoon sergeant and weekly with their case worker to make sure their recovery is on track.
"I see this as a common- sense approach," said Col. Chris Jones, the unit's chief medical officer. "We've allowed soldiers to come home to get their care. When someone is with their family and friends, they're going to get better quicker."
The Army created the community-based transition units in 2004 and '05 to deal with a surge of patients at military hospitals. In addition to easing overcrowding, the program reunites National Guard and reserve soldiers with their families and helps them regain a sense of normalcy.
Not all of the soldiers have combat wounds. Some were injured - or, say, suffered a heart attack - while training for an overseas deployment.
Soldiers typically spend a few months to a year in the transition unit. Those who recover fully rejoin their previous units. Those with chronic medical conditions that make them unfit to serve are processed out of the military.
Before they go home, soldiers spend about three days at Camp Pendleton. Jones, a physician, meets with each soldier, examines his or her medical history and recommends a care plan.
He sometimes hooks patients up with university hospitals or specialists outside the military medical system, and works to get Tricare, the military insurance program, to cover the tab.
The incoming soldiers also meet with Patricia Bischoff, a licensed clinical social worker.
"Some people are coming through intact," Bischoff said. "Some people are coming through with a lot, a lot, a lot of problems. A lot of post-traumatic stress disorder."
Bischoff said she has great admiration for soldiers' tenacity.
But she also worries about long-term problems. Many of the soldiers she's seen have been prescribed serious, mood-altering drugs to help them sleep, relieve anxiety or battle depression.
That's OK for a time, she said. But drugs have their limit.
"Some of them have been back a year and a half, and they're still on Ambien" to help them sleep, she said. Others rely on prescription drugs for pain and risk becoming addicted.
During her interviews, Bischoff asks soldiers lots of questions about their support systems.
"People that don't have any family, I worry about them a little more," she said.
Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Bundick speaks daily by phone with the 31 soldiers in his platoon.
"Many times I wish they would be here in front of me," he said. "But the majority of people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They still have to maintain themselves as soldiers, even if they're home with their wife and kids."
In a handful of cases where long-distance monitoring didn't work well, Bundick said, he has ordered soldiers to a residential transition unit at Fort Eustis. One such soldier, who had severe post-traumatic stress disorder, later thanked Bundick, saying he probably would have killed himself if Bundick hadn't intervened.
The biggest priority for soldiers in the program is keeping their medical appointments. They also are assigned to work at a National Guard armory or a reserve center near their home.
Bennett works at Camp Pendleton, doing filing and administrative work for the transition unit. He goes to occupational therapy twice a week at Oceana Naval Air Station's medical clinic.
He also has appointments with specialists - including a neurologist, neuro-psychiatrist and speech pathologist - at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center at least once a week.
Being near his parents and living with his wife has been good for him, he said. His wife quit her job to spend time with him while he was at Walter Reed.
"But it's not the same as living at home," Bennett said. "Coming home, it does a lot to put everything at ease."
Bennett is confident about his future. He is still plagued by headaches, but he aid his motor skills and cognitive abilities are much improved, and his therapy will continue.
He hopes to return in January to Old Dominion University, where he was studying engineering. He plans to re-enter its ROTC program and earn his commission.
The former high school baseball player wistfully recalls being healthy.
"Before, the only thing I went to a doctor for was a sports physical," Bennett said. "Now I've got four medications that I take daily. It's kind of an adjustment."
November 29, 2008
By Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH--Spc. Edward Bennett helped detect and detonate roadside bombs in Iraq for almost a year before he realized something was wrong.
Dizzy spells. Memory lapses. Slight coordination problems.
A brain scan revealed that Bennett suffered from traumatic brain injury, one of the signature combat wounds of the Iraq war.
Bennett, a member of the Virginia National Guard's 237th Engineer Battalion, was flown to Germany in June for treatment, then spent two months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Now, even though he's still on active duty and getting treatment, Bennett, 22, is once again living at home with his wife in Virginia Beach.
He is assigned to one of the Army's eight community-based warrior transition units. Bennett happens to live within a few miles of Camp Pendleton, a state military reservation that's home to one of the units. Most of the 200 other soldiers assigned to the unit live hours away in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina.
Soldiers are required to check in daily by phone with their platoon sergeant and weekly with their case worker to make sure their recovery is on track.
"I see this as a common- sense approach," said Col. Chris Jones, the unit's chief medical officer. "We've allowed soldiers to come home to get their care. When someone is with their family and friends, they're going to get better quicker."
The Army created the community-based transition units in 2004 and '05 to deal with a surge of patients at military hospitals. In addition to easing overcrowding, the program reunites National Guard and reserve soldiers with their families and helps them regain a sense of normalcy.
Not all of the soldiers have combat wounds. Some were injured - or, say, suffered a heart attack - while training for an overseas deployment.
Soldiers typically spend a few months to a year in the transition unit. Those who recover fully rejoin their previous units. Those with chronic medical conditions that make them unfit to serve are processed out of the military.
Before they go home, soldiers spend about three days at Camp Pendleton. Jones, a physician, meets with each soldier, examines his or her medical history and recommends a care plan.
He sometimes hooks patients up with university hospitals or specialists outside the military medical system, and works to get Tricare, the military insurance program, to cover the tab.
The incoming soldiers also meet with Patricia Bischoff, a licensed clinical social worker.
"Some people are coming through intact," Bischoff said. "Some people are coming through with a lot, a lot, a lot of problems. A lot of post-traumatic stress disorder."
Bischoff said she has great admiration for soldiers' tenacity.
But she also worries about long-term problems. Many of the soldiers she's seen have been prescribed serious, mood-altering drugs to help them sleep, relieve anxiety or battle depression.
That's OK for a time, she said. But drugs have their limit.
"Some of them have been back a year and a half, and they're still on Ambien" to help them sleep, she said. Others rely on prescription drugs for pain and risk becoming addicted.
During her interviews, Bischoff asks soldiers lots of questions about their support systems.
"People that don't have any family, I worry about them a little more," she said.
Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Bundick speaks daily by phone with the 31 soldiers in his platoon.
"Many times I wish they would be here in front of me," he said. "But the majority of people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They still have to maintain themselves as soldiers, even if they're home with their wife and kids."
In a handful of cases where long-distance monitoring didn't work well, Bundick said, he has ordered soldiers to a residential transition unit at Fort Eustis. One such soldier, who had severe post-traumatic stress disorder, later thanked Bundick, saying he probably would have killed himself if Bundick hadn't intervened.
The biggest priority for soldiers in the program is keeping their medical appointments. They also are assigned to work at a National Guard armory or a reserve center near their home.
Bennett works at Camp Pendleton, doing filing and administrative work for the transition unit. He goes to occupational therapy twice a week at Oceana Naval Air Station's medical clinic.
He also has appointments with specialists - including a neurologist, neuro-psychiatrist and speech pathologist - at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center at least once a week.
Being near his parents and living with his wife has been good for him, he said. His wife quit her job to spend time with him while he was at Walter Reed.
"But it's not the same as living at home," Bennett said. "Coming home, it does a lot to put everything at ease."
Bennett is confident about his future. He is still plagued by headaches, but he aid his motor skills and cognitive abilities are much improved, and his therapy will continue.
He hopes to return in January to Old Dominion University, where he was studying engineering. He plans to re-enter its ROTC program and earn his commission.
The former high school baseball player wistfully recalls being healthy.
"Before, the only thing I went to a doctor for was a sports physical," Bennett said. "Now I've got four medications that I take daily. It's kind of an adjustment."