ICYMI: At Hearing, Warren Secures Commitment from Special Operations Commander to Address Blast Overpressure Exposure for Service Members
Special Operations Commander Expresses Support for Home Base Treatment Programs
Warren Announces New Bipartisan Bill to Require DoD to Take Concrete Steps to Mitigate Service Member Exposure to Blast Overpressure
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised serious concerns about service members’ exposure to blast overpressure from firing weapons, which can cause traumatic brain injuries and other harm, and called on the Commander of the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to seriously address blast overpressure exposure.
Special Operations Forces are one of the communities at the greatest risk for blast overpressure exposure, and Senator Warren noted that there are gaps between policy and service members’ experience on the ground.
In response to Senator Warren’s questions, General Bryan Fenton, SOCOM Commander, agreed that service members would benefit from annual cognitive health testing to monitor the potential impacts of blast exposure and that commanders would benefit from having more accurate safety data on weapons systems.
General Fenton also agreed Special Operators would benefit from more access to programs like Home Base, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization whose Comprehensive Brain Health and Trauma Program helps get 95 percent of servicemembers back into the field and makes it easier for Special Operators to seek treatment mid-career. “Home Base is incredible,” he said. “It's a blessing for your special operators, as are some of the other centers as well that are out there. And we absolutely would benefit from getting more access to it because we see the results.”
Senator Warren announced that she will introduce a new bipartisan bill, the Blast Overpressure Safety Act, to require the Department of Defense to take steps to mitigate service member exposure and take the actions General Felton agreed would be beneficial.
Transcript: To Receive Testimony on the Posture of United States Special Operations Command and United States Cyber Command in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2025 and the Future Years Defense Program
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Senator Elizabeth Warren: So we know that firing weapons can expose service members to pressure from blasts that can cause traumatic brain injuries and other harms.
The New York Times revealed last year that artillery units fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria suffered from hallucinations, seizures, depression, and suicides after firing more rounds than any artillery unit since the Vietnam War.
Special Operations Forces are one of the communities at greatest risk, and SOCOM is now taking steps to protect special operators, including by regularly testing their cognitive health and requiring instructors to stand further away when troops fire certain weapons. But there are gaps on the ground, the New York Times observed a Special Operations training and quote, “none of those safety steps could be seen.”
One concern is that we may miss operators suffering injuries because we're only screening their cognitive health every three years. So General Fenton, would service members benefit from annual cognitive health testing to monitor the potential impacts from blast exposure?
General Bryan P. Fenton, Commander, United States Special Operations Command: Senator, I think we would all benefit from an increased periodicity on health screening and testing. And we've got many ways to do that.
Senator Warren: Good, I'm glad to hear that. I am also concerned that these operators may be afraid to ask for help, or may not even know that they need help, so these regular screenings are critically important to saving lives.
I think there's more that we can do. A commander is trained to know how to guide their team through enemy territory. But it is hard for a commander to take care of their troops if they don't know the risks that the weapons pose to their troops' brain health.
So General Fenton, would commanders benefit from having more accurate safety data on weapons systems that their operators use, like the level of blast coming from the weapons?
General Fenton: Senator, absolutely. Hits right at the heart of what we're all charged to do, which is, number one, the health, safety, and welfare of our uniformed service members, everybody in our charge. SOCOM is moving out on that.
Senator Warren: Good, but we've got to get this information to the people who are in these on-the-ground leadership roles.
I think we also need to make sure that troops who are suffering from blast exposure injuries receive the care that they need. I am proud that Massachusetts is home to a nonprofit organization called Home Base, that takes care of the invisible wounds of veterans, service members, military families, and families of the fallen.
Home Base’s comprehensive brain health and trauma program helps get 95% of our service members back into the field, and makes it easier for Special Operators to receive treatment mid-career rather than waiting until they're leaving the service.
General Fenton, would Special Operators benefit from more access to programs like Home Base?
General Fenton: Senator, absolutely. If I might, first of all, thank you for the conversation you and I had about this and our desire to get more access to centers like this. And Home Base is incredible. It's a blessing for your Special Operators, as are some of the other centers as well that are out there. And we absolutely would benefit from getting more access to it, because we see the results. The incredible outcomes, where somebody goes in has a number of musculoskeletal, all the way down to you know, just in the ability to need a new pair of glasses because of some neuro things. And absolutely, we’d love take more and leverage more.
Senator Warren: Good. The work they're doing is, is truly amazing both to assess and diagnose the problems, and successfully to treat them, and that's the part we have to underline about TBI.
You know, this is one of the reasons that I am proud that I along with Senator Ernst and Senators Tillis and King and Kane and Scott and Duckworth and Cardin, will be introducing the Blast Overexposure Safety Act to require the DOD to take much needed steps to mitigate servicemember exposure.
There is one more place, I want to say quickly, where we need to close the gap between policy and action. SOCOM said back in 2019 that it would start issuing blast exposure gauges to all of its operators Despite knowing about this need for over five years, it was not included in your budget and was relegated to your annual unfunded priorities list.
When you don't include critical programs like this in the base budget, it sends the message to servicemembers and to their families, that it's not a real priority for your command. So I want to work with DoD and with SOCOM on these issues. But you need to clearly state in your budget that you take this issue seriously, budgets are a statement of our values.
General Fenton: Senator, if I might thank you for that. We absolutely will. I would say in this case on this blast sensor system that we put into our unfunded priority list this year, it came in between two budget cycles. When in 2019, as directed by the NDAA, we went after, in SOCOM, a number of different blast sensor opportunities and options. They didn't meet our standard. The majority of them were out in a in a commercial variant. Now, we've zeroed in on a blast sensor, I will call it system.
And that's why in between two budget cycles, I absolutely wanted this Congress to see it, understand how committed we are to it, but you've got my commitment. That thing will be in our budget going forward next year. It just happened to be a timing and a fact of life change out in the commercial environment.
Senator Warren: Thank you. I appreciate that.
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