HUFFINGTON
09.01-08.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
He could hear moaning and someone shouting, “MadDog Five’s hit!”
but it turned out everyone was
okay. At least no one was dead or
had limbs torn off.
“The way it was, when you got
hit like that, you got out of the
wreckage and said, ‘Whew! We
made it!’ If you weren’t bleeding,
pretty much you went on and continued with the mission,” he explained. “There was no going to get
a head scan or anything like that.”
With two weeks left before the
battalion was due to rotate home,
Mike did what countless other
troops have done with a concussion: nothing. His head hurt horribly every day, but he felt deeply
responsible for his soldiers and
— like many combat leaders — he
took personal responsibility for
their lives. “I had to get those
174 dudes back home safe. Even
though my head hurt so bad I
couldn’t sleep,” he said.
“What I’m trying to say is that
there was no system to help the
macho soldier who’s not going to do
anything unless he’s bleeding out,”
Mike said. “I knew a concussion
ought to be checked out. I didn’t
know you would possibly have a
brain injury.” Or that complications
from that injury would eventually
drive him toward suicide.
When Mike and his soldiers
were being processed off active
duty at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, they were anxious to get home
to their wives and kids. At one
point in what seemed like an endless bureaucratic process, Mike
filled out a questionnaire about his
combat experience and handed it
Mike and his
wife, Jackie,
who he
credits with
his recovery.