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From Gridiron To Battlefield?

By Kat on June 10, 2008 | | Comments (4)

[Kat]

From Gridiron to Battlefield?

Army doctors home from Iraq and Afghanistan were watching NFL players pound it out, and thought, "that's what our soldiers need, helmets like ... that."

Because, believe it or not, the effects on the brain of on-field collisions can be a lot like an IED explosion, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports.[snip]

"Let's just look and see if we take a football helmet that's designed to prevent concussion and gerry-rig that into an Army combat helmet, and then test it in a standard fashion that helmets are tested to see if we couldn't decrease the incidents of concussion," said Dr. John Holcomb of the Brooke Army Medical Center.

Did it ever. It was 50 percent better.

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4 Comments

By Lou Mazz on June 10, 2008 8:54 AM
So what this is saying is that Doonesbury was right all along?
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 10, 2008 9:05 AM
Snerk! Yeah, Lou, I guess so!
 
By irish19 on June 10, 2008 9:53 AM
The part that struck me was that DoD says it will have the new helmet in the field in 90 days. That has to be some kind of record, given the glacially slow pace of procurement. It also would seem to speak well of priorities.
 
By kat-missouri on June 10, 2008 10:02 AM
It speaks well of the huge number of people, 30% or more of those who served, who have been exposed to blasts, are diagnosed with TBI and who may come back and haunt the VA system for years costing tons of money. Much cheaper to stop the injuries up front than pay for it on the back end. Of course, better chance at a better quality of life for our soldiers when they return, but I don't put the altruism as a higher priority.