10
The Mayo Clinic says traumatic brain injury “usually results from a violent blow or jolt to the head that causes the brain to collide with the inside of the skull. An object penetrating the skull, such as a bullet or shattered piece of skull, also can cause traumatic brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury may cause temporary dysfunction of brain cells. More serious traumatic brain injury can result in bruising, torn tissues, bleeding and other physical damage to the brain that can result in long-term complications or death.” According to the 2008 RAND Corporation study “Invisible Wounds: Mental Health and Cognitive Care Needs of America’s Returning Veterans,” as many as 320,000 of the 1.64 million U.S. troops who have served in Iraq may have suffered some form of traumatic brain injury.
11
All e-mails and Internet postings displayed as written.
12
“Outside the wire” is an American military term used to denote the defensive perimeter surrounding any type of forward operating base. Inside the wire is considered a protected space, outside the wire unprotected.
13
T-rats, or T-rations, are precooked military meals that come in rectangular tray-packs rather than individual serving sizes like MREs, or meals ready to eat. They don’t need refrigeration and can feed troops in a forward operating base or combat outpost with no preparation.
14
The CH-47 Chinook is an American heavy-lift, double-rotor transport helicopter. It has been in continual use by the U.S. military since the Vietnam War.
15
Balad, seventy miles north of Baghdad, was a hub site of air operations both under former dictator Saddam Hussein and for coalition forces following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Under the U.S. military occupation it became known as Joint Base Balad.
16
According to U.S. Marine Corps documents, 3/1 Marines had the highest casualty rate of any unit during Operation Phantom Fury, with 22 killed and 206 wounded in action.
17
The A-10 Thunderbolt is an American military jet developed in the 1970s to provide close air support to ground combat troops. Because it was neither sleek looking nor fast it was nicknamed the Warthog, but armed with a 30 mm cannon and air-to-ground missiles, it was particularly deadly during the Gulf War, reportedly destroying nearly one thousand Iraqi tanks and thousands of other military vehicles and artillery pieces.
18
Because the eleven American deaths came so early in the Gulf War’s ground combat operations and were considered “friendly fire,” Jenkins’s photo was featured on the February 18, 1991, cover of
19
The term “Greatest Generation” was coined by NBC News anchorman and journalist Tom Brokaw in the title of his book
20
“Tunnel rat” was the nickname for American, Australian and New Zealand troops whose job it was to find and destroy the tunnel systems of Vietcong guerrillas in Vietnam. Once found, they would also have to penetrate them armed with nothing more than a flashlight in one hand and a .45 caliber pistol the other. They were often shorter men so that they could squeeze into the tunnels.
21
American troops’ nickname for Vietnamese National Liberation Front guerrillas, or Vietcong (VC). In the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (used by the American military for radio communications), the word “Victor” is used for “V” and the word “Charlie” is used for “C,” so the “VC” for “Vietcong” became “Victor Charlie,” often shortened to just “Charlie.”
22
