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

By Patrick Sherman

The Clackamas Review, Sep 6, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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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.

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