HUFFINGTON
09.01-08.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
million troops have been diagnosed
with TBI, and many more injuries
— like Mike’s — went undiagnosed
because the military didn’t start
battlefield testing until 2007.
Recent studies have conclusively linked traumatic brain injury to suicidal behavior. But for
too many, the military’s improved
screening and treatment for mental health issues have come too
late. Indeed, Mike’s trajectory is
a common and troubling case, a
roadmap of how things go wrong.
UNDIAGNOSED
AND UNTREATED
Drawn early to military service,
Mike enlisted in the National
Guard in 1995 while working for
a local power company in Raleigh,
N.C. He rose quickly through the
civilian and military ranks, getting regular promotions and pay
increases at the power company
and being selected to become an
officer in the Guard.
When war came, Lt. McMichael
was a platoon leader in Charlie
Company, 1st Battalion 20th Infantry, North Carolina National
Guard, and found himself in Iraq’s
Were you ever in fear
of your life? Check.
Felt hopeless, check.
Ever see bodies, check;
ever see civilian
injuries, check. Anxious
and sleepless, check.
Saladin Province north of Baghdad, where the insurgency was
escalating and IEDs were killing
with unnerving regularity. A natural leader, Mike was promoted to
become the company executive
officer, a position in which he felt
directly responsible for the lives
of 174 North Carolinians. His radio call sign: ManDog Five.
He had several near misses with
IEDs, but in late November 2004,
two 155-mm artillery shells wired
together with a cell phone detonated when insurgents dialed the
number from a safe distance. The
blast blew his unarmored Humvee
off the road; Mike was unconscious
for five minutes or more. When he
came to, he couldn’t hear or see
or feel anything, but gradually his
blindness opened to tunnel vision
and a bit of his hearing came back.
★