Qualifications for awarding the Purple Heart, a medal recognizing personal sacrifice by those wounded in combat, do not include any requirement that the injury be visible to the naked eye. And yet high-ranking commanders in the U.S. Army have routinely denied the Purple Heart to soldiers who have suffered concussions while fighting in Iraq.

 

An investigation by NPR and ProPublica uncovered stories of soldiers who have fought for months and even years to prove their concussions (known also as “mild traumatic brain injuries”) were real and that they deserved to receive the honor. Studies have shown that between 5% and 15% of soldiers who receive such injuries end up with long-term impairment.

 

“Commanders turned down some soldiers despite well-documented blast wounds that wrenched their minds, altered their lives and wracked their families,” wrote the news organizations.

 

The Purple Heart was established by General George Washington in 1782. The regulations regarding the award state that among the enemy-related injuries that justify the award are “Concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions.”

 

Almost 25,000 soldiers have been awarded Purple Hearts as a result of wounds inflicted in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 90,000 Army personnel have officially received concussions since 2002, but there are no official figures about how many of these were awarded Purple Hearts.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Soldiers With Brain Trauma Denied Purple Hearts, Adding Insult to Injury (by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR)

Military Awards (Department of the Army-page 21) (pdf)