The U.S. Defense Department is going to require cognitive assessments for all new recruits as part of a broader effort to protect troops from brain injuries resulting from exposure to blasts, including during training.
The new guidance also requires greater use of protective equipment, minimum “stand-off distances” during certain types of training, and a reduction in the number of people in proximity to blasts. Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who sits on the Armed Services Committee, applauded the Pentagon for “fast-tracking these needed changes.
” He pointed to concerns that an Army reservist responsible for killing 18 people in Maine had a brain injury that could have been linked to his time training West Point cadets on a grenade range. But Lt. Gen.
Jody Daniels, chief of the Army Reserves, has emphatically stated that a traumatic brain injury that was revealed in a postmortem examination of tissue was not linked to Robert Card’s military service. An Army report said Card had previously fallen from a ladder, a potential cause of head injuries . The memorandum focused on repetitive exposures to heavier weapons like artillery, anti-tank weapons and heavy-caliber machines that produce a certain level of impact, not the grenades and small arms weapons used by Card.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks described new guidance that replaces an interim memorandum from 2022 as “identifying and implementing best practices to promote overall brain health and .