pagesofhistory Undiagnosed TBI
A study shows many British servicemembers originally diagnosed with “shell shock” in World War I might have been struggling with PTSD from a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
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cores of British servicemem- bers, many afflicted with “shell shock,” were executed for cowardice
or desertion during World War I, records show. Nearly 100 years later, at Duke University in North Carolina, a multidis- ciplinary team comprising mental health experts, a biomedical engineer, and a blast specialist is exploring the idea that at least some of the condemned were innocent vic- tims of PTSD, TBI, or both. World War I, defined by the horrors of
trench warfare, was the first major con- flict to incorporate new and destructive warfighting technologies, such as machine guns, chemical weapons, and high-explo- sive artillery. The latter especially could have a devastating effect on the brains of servicemembers caught in a blast area, note the investigators, who in July pre- sented their findings at the annual meet- ing of the National Neurotrauma Society. Many of those executed had been excep- tional servicemembers until their mental break, records show. For example, a com- mand sergeant major had called Army Pvt. William Alfred Moon “one of the best of sol- diers” after knowing him for two years. “Potentially, what this research can tell is that maybe some of these cases we thought of as PTSD were TBI and that we kind of missed that difference over the years,” Dr. Bruce Capehart, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical School, told The News & Observer. “That might change some of our percep-
PHOTO: PAUL POPPER/POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES
tions about TBI versus PTSD among sol- diers coming home and may cause us to be more open to looking for TBI.”
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“First Lady of Ordnance” Celebrates 105th Birthday t. Col. Luta Mae Cornelius McGrath, USA-Ret., — affec- tionately known as the “First Lady
of Ordnance” — turns 105 Nov. 21. McGrath en-
listed in the Army Feb. 1, 1943, be- fore the Women’s Army Corp was established. After serving most of her career with the Ordnance Corps, she retired Feb. 28, 1961. McGrath served
at the Red River Army Depot, Texas; in Berlin during the Berlin Airlift; and at the Pentagon. She was inducted into the Ordnance Hall of Fame in Aberdeen, Md., in 1985. McGrath met her husband, Thomas, in
1947 while stationed at the Griesheim Ord- nance Depot outside Frankfurt, Germany. They wed in 1950 after returning to the U.S. Thomas McGrath died in 1991.
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— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based free- lance writer, authors this monthly column.
NOVEMBER 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 79
World War I-era Brit- ish troops involved in battlefield blasts might have endured traumat- ic brain injury, leading to undiagnosed PTSD.
History Lesson On Nov. 8, 1942, Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa, began as about 400,000 soldiers under the command of Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower landed at Morocco and Algeria.
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