Wounded: Vietnam to Iraq

Wounded: Vietnam/Iraq Another outstanding book from Dr. Glasser about the real cost of war; "Wounded" identifies the casuality data the current administration doesn't want us to know. More soldiers are losing their limbs then in any war since our civil war. A majority of the wounded returning to America have Traumatic Brain Injuries. The VA medical system is not prepared and is underfunded to care for these returnees. This book is the best arguement for our removing our soldiers from both Iraq and Afganistan as soon as possible. Ronald Glasser is a medical doctor who treated soldiers injured in Viet Nam, and returned to that task with the current wars. His information is first hand, and calls forth a strong response in the reader.

Wounded: Vietnam to Iraq author Ronald J. Glasser, M.D., served as an Army hospital physician during the Vietnam War and offers alarming insights and comparisons in military medical experience between the Vietnam War and the current Iraq war. At once both fascinating in its studious examination in how the changing nature of modern battlefields has transformed the job of the medic, from simply keeping a wounded patient alive until a chopper could quickly evacuate to having to prolong life for up to 72 hours, since air superiority has all but vanished in the modern era of urban warfare and readily available technology to shoot down choppers. "The training period for the Combat Medical Specialty was increased from ten to sixteen weeks... The additional weeks of training were devoted to developing the new core skills necessary to keep the severely wounded alive where they were hit, with little chance for immediate evacuation. No more 'patch 'em up and send them off.' This was to be big-time medicine, the city trauma center brought to the battlefield." A sober, well-reasoned, "must-read" about the evolving state of combat medicine and the long-term repercussions of war wounds.

After rereading the book 365 Days by Dr. Ronald Glasser, one that this vietnam combat vet found to be both stirring and haunting, I had to get his most recent book. And I was not disappointed. If you want to have a feel for those who serve and become casualties for our flag and country, these books are vital additions to your library.

I have long looked for the true figures about the nature of death in Iraq. Fortunately the Australian media is slightly better than the pap served up by the media in the country that is causing the sickening mayhem in Iraq and we know only a little of the true monstrousness of this war to bring democracy to the unwashed masses of Iraq. Glasser lays it on the line and spells out, particularly in the chapter Final Diagnosis, the enormity of the American soldier's burden in this conflict. On page 73 he writes that there were 600 ammunition dumps scattered around Iraq when the Shock and Awe invasion ended. There's nothing unexpected in this but the problem happened when none of the Shock and Awe victors policed these dumps and they were cleaned out by the "defeated" Iraqi army. What this means in the reality of ground combat is that there is a virtually unlimited supply of hugely powerful explosives available to mine roads and anywhere else American soldiers find themselves in the horror of Iraq. Glasser goes into medical detail about what happens to middle aged reservists who are caught in these explosions. He talks as the expert he is about the wounds suffered by soldiers caught in an explosion of this huge power. He talks about what 155mm shells hooked to butane gas tanks does to a person's head when it explodes. Because of quick evacuation and superb treatment these poor wounded live but the impact on, particularly the head, causes horrific , lifelasting injuries. I do not think, because of the media, America and the world in general knows what is happening to American soldiers in Iraq; I believe that the low death rates for US soldiers has led America to tolerate this war more than its true horror would indicate. Glasser's wonderful, readable and understandable book lifts the veil on the terrible price being paid for what has become a cesspool for American youth.

If you've ever wondered about what America's young men, and women, serving in the war on terror in Iraq face everyday, this book is for you. Ron Glasser has done an excellent job describing in facts and figures what this war is costing now and what will be paid in the future. Not only in monetary terms, but in the permanent disfigurement and disability of the wounded. He explains, in sometimes terribly graphic detail, the horrors of being injured in Iraq, and how those injuries compare and contrast to injuries suffered in the Vietnam conflict. It's a different war, in a different time, but people are being injured and killed, just the same. Everyone has questions about the war in Iraq. This book answers some, but leaves the reader with more.