Hooley demands better helmets for troops in Iraq
Pentagon reduces standards for helmet padding, increasing risk of brain injury or death for troops fighting overseas
Representative Darlene Hooley has proposed a bill in Congress that would require the Department of Defense to reimburse soldiers serving in Iraq who choose to purchase helmet padding that is superior to their standard-issue equipment.
“This is one of those issues that makes my blood boil,” said Hooley. “The Defense Department decided to lower the standards that they use for helmet padding in November 2004.”
The dispute is reminiscent of an issue that emerged during the early stages of the Iraq War, when troops were not provided with adequate body armor. In response, families purchased the armor themselves and sent it to their loved ones serving overseas.
“We struggled to get them the best body armor available, because they had inferior armor when they first went over there,” Hooley said. “The people that we put in harm’s way deserve to have the best available gear.”
She explained that the protective padding that soldiers wear inside their helmets is rated for the amount of force that it transfers to the wearer’s head during an explosion – measured against the force of Earth’s gravity, known as g-force. The higher the number, the less protection the padding provides.
“The old standard was 150 g-forces on the helmet, but the Defense Department raised that to 300 g-forces,” said Hooley. “At that 300 g-force rating, if you get hit in the head, you’re dead. At the 150 g-force level, you probably have a brain injury.”
Continuing, Hooley added that elite special forces soldiers are provided with helmet padding rated at 90 g-forces, and the price difference between that and the 300 g-force padding being provided to regular troops is modest – only $20 to $30 per set.
“I don’t understand it – it makes no sense,” Hooley said. “I am appalled that they would do this.”
If passed into law, her bill would force the Department of Defense to repay soldiers who purchase the superior padding for themselves up until Sept. 30, 2008. Whatever the short-term costs, Hooley said she is certain that the measure will pay for itself many times over in the long term.
“If you talk to the military people, if you talk to the doctors, they will tell you that brain injuries are the signature injury of this war. Out of our total casualties, 20 percent suffer brain injuries – that’s 3,213 soldiers,” she said. “It costs between $600,000 and $5 million to treat a brain injury.
“If you outfitted the 150,000 troops we have in Iraq right now with the best available padding, it would cost $4.5 million. This whole thing could pay for itself by preventing one injury.”
She was quick to add that her calculations made no allowance for the human suffering that accompanies brain injuries, and which will often affect soldiers for the rest of their lives.
“I hate to put this in dollars and cents, because you’re talking about people’s lives and the quality of their lives,” she said.
Hooley introduced the measure shortly before Congress left Washington D.C. for its summer recess. Not having had the opportunity to consult with her colleagues, she did not offer an estimate of the level of support it would receive in the House, but she hoped that merely putting it on the agenda would be sufficient to prompt the Department of Defense to re-think its policy.
“Hopefully, we won’t have to pass it,” she said. “Hopefully, the Pentagon will just say, ‘We have to do better than this.’ I just want to put a stick of dynamite under them.”
She also hoped that her proposal would rally the public around the issue.
“This is something that people should be up in arms about,” she said.