Soldier in Fort Carson investigation says he was deployed with head injury despite 'don't deploy' order

Above: Soldiers attend a Purple Heart ceremony at Fort Carson, Colorado.

After an hour of bench-pressing a log weighing several hundred pounds during Army Special Forces selection training in February 2006, five soldiers lying on their backs at Fort Bragg, N.C., reacted quickly to the next order:

“Drop back!”

So quickly, in fact, that when they dropped the log, it landed on Spc. Paul Thurman’s head.

“I shook for a moment, and then went limp,” Thurman told Military Times. “I was unconscious for a minute or two, and then I went back to training.”

An MRI later showed that Thurman had lesions on the right parietal lobe of his brain, a condition that led to a “don’t deploy” order — which the Army violated, according to Thurman. Worse, rather than providing compassionate understanding of the symptoms associated with traumatic brain injury, he said leaders at Fort Carson, Colo., have harassed him, refused him medication and pushed for an Article 15.

Read the rest at Army Times

Related Link:
Senators request investiagtion into Colorado soldiers discharged, denied benefits for PTSD

Related Link:
Perspective: How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits