(CBS) Approximately 300,000 American men and women have served at one time or another in Iraq.

Most will return to the United States more or less intact. But some come home the hard way - on a stretcher, bloody and broken.

And, as Correspondent Bob Simon says, there are few bloodier or more broken than Chris Schneider.

Schneider says he believed in the war in Iraq, and liked wearing the uniform. "[I was] proud to wear it. I loved wearing it," says Schneider, a Kansas boy straight off the recruitment poster.

He went to college on a wrestling scholarship, started a family, and joined the Army Reserves. This past January, his unit was providing security for a supply convoy traveling through 100 miles of dangerous Iraqi desert. He was riding in a two-and-a-half ton cargo truck, armed to the teeth.

"In my vehicle there was my driver, there was my 50-cal gunner who was in a turret on top," says Schneider. "And then there was myself and another individual in back. We both had M249 machine guns."

Schneider saw another convoy coming in his direction - a line of HETS (heavy equipment transports), big rigs on steroids, hogging the road. The first HET just missed hitting his truck. The second one did not.

"It threw me up over my vehicle, over the HET and about 50 feet into the field on the left," says Schneider. "When I landed, the next HET in line had locked up their brakes to keep from rear ending the one that we hit. And when he came to rest, the first set of tires on his trailer were parked on my pelvis. And the second set had my lower leg wedged in it to the axle. I've been told a rough estimate of approximately 120,000 to 140,000 pounds."

Today, Schneider walks with a limp, on his artificial leg. But even though he was injured while on a mission in a war zone – and even though he’ll receive the same benefits as a soldier who’d been shot - he is not included in the Pentagon’s casualty count. Their official tally shows only deaths and wounded in action. It doesn't include "non-combat" injured, those whose injuries were not the result of enemy fire.

"It's a slap in the face. Although it was through no direct hostile action, I was on a mission that they’d given me in hostile territory. Hostile enough that we had to have a perimeter set up at the time of my accident to prevent from an ambush or an attack," says Schneider. "For those of us that were unfortunate enough to get injured. Whether it was hostile action or not, we're all paying the same price."
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How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines - like Chris Schneider - are left off the Pentagon’s casualty count?

Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense to grant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."

Many of those evacuated are brought to Landstuhl in Germany. Most cases are not life-threatening. In fact, some are not serious at all. But only 20 percent return to their units in Iraq. Among the 80 percent who don’t return are GIs who suffered crushing bone fractures; scores of spinal injuries; heart problems by the hundreds; and a slew of psychiatric cases. None of these are included in the casualty count, leaving the true human cost of the war something of a mystery.

"It's difficult to estimate what the total number is," says John Pike, director of a research group called GlobalSecurity.org.

As a military analyst, Pike has spoken out against both Republican and Democratic administrations. He’s weighed all the available casualty data and has made an informed estimate that goes well beyond what the Pentagon has released.

"You have to say that the total number of casualties due to wounds, injury, disease would have to be somewhere in the ballpark of over 20, maybe 30,000," says Pike.

His calculation, striking as it is, is based on the military's own definition of casualty – anyone "lost to the organization," in this case, for medical reasons. And Pike believes it’s no accident that the military reports a number far lower than his estimate.

"The Pentagon, I think, is afraid that they're going to lose public support for this war, the way they lost public support for Vietnam back in the 1960s," says Pike. "And minimizing the apparent cost of the war, I think, is one way that they're hoping to sustain public support here at home."

60 Minutes asked the assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs about that claim - that casualties are being underreported, for political reasons. And we got a flat denial. In a letter, he told us, "We in the Department of Defense categorically reject the notion that we are underreporting casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom."

He pointed out that he’d already provided us with some figures - the 15,000 evacuations of non-combat injured and ill. Still, Pike says the military is trying to minimize the casualty count. It’s an effort Pike believes is misguided, because he says that even if Americans understood the full human cost of the war, public support would not weaken.

"I think that all of the public opinion polling that we're seeing suggests that the public is prepared to sustain far higher casualties than politicians give them credit for," says Pike. "I think that it's basically that the politicians and the Pentagon, don't have confidence in the American people."
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The Department of Defense did not include non-battle injuries in its casualty reports in other recent wars, either. But that’s of little comfort to Joel Gomez, who was riding in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle, looking for insurgents, when disaster struck.

"Unfortunately, the Bradley was too heavy for the road, a dirt road, and the ground gave way. And we wound up flipping down the mountain. And it landed upside-down in the Tigris River," says Gomez.

His two buddies were killed. Gomez made it out, but he's now paralyzed. "[It's] a horrific change. I can't move my legs. I can't move my arms," says Gomez. "It just totally changes your life in a manner that you could never imagine."

Even though Gomez tumbled into the Tigris while looking for insurgents, he is, by the Pentagon’s definition, “non-combat injured.”

"They blow it off and say it's just an accident," say Gomez. "I'm sure that somebody getting shot in the back would just be an accident. But that's how they see it."

The Department of Defense says the injuries and illnesses suffered by Gomez and thousands of other troops should not be taken out of context. In their letter to 60 Minutes, they said: “In order to understand rates of injuries and diseases, it is necessary to understand what the normal or usual rates of injuries and diseases might be in other situations.”

What does this mean? That there are always going to be a certain number of accidents and injuries, war or no war – though they offer no numbers for comparison.

"Soldiers and Marines are gonna get sick. They're gonna get into accidents. But there's gonna be more disease, more accidents, more psychiatric stress in Iraq than if they were back here," says Pike, who adds that hundreds of troops in Iraq have been so paralyzed by stress that they've had to be medically evacuated – though you won't see them reported in the casualty count.
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Traditionally, that count has not included combat stress. It was long thought, in the military’s macho culture, that psychological trauma is best suffered in silence.

Graham Alstrom has been back from Iraq for over a year, but he’s still haunted by what he saw – and what he did to other people. "Some of them I shot. Some of them I blew up with grenades. Some of them were stabbed," says Alstrom.

The memories of killing invaded his mind. Soon after he returned home, Alstrom’s life began to unravel.

"The drinking started immediately. I stopped sleeping. And I started getting very angry. I didn't want to talk to my family anymore. I didn't want them to see me. I didn't want to see them. I felt like they were ashamed of me," says Alstrom. "I was partly ashamed of some of the things I had done. …I couldn't separate the killing people and killing them in combat."

He says he's frustrated that the military says his illness is not combat-related. "I know what I was like before I went to combat. I had a life beyond the Army," says Alstrom. "I talked to my family. I'd share feelings and emotions with people I cared about. I lived a very regular life."

Alstrom won’t get a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq. It was only his mind that was wounded in battle. "It doesn't matter what the paperwork says. We know what happened over there. We know what we did over there," says Alstrom. "And no piece of paperwork saying that I'm not a casualty could ever take that away. For any of us."

They’ve had so much taken away already, but both Alstrom and Schneider insist that what remains inside them is the heart of a good soldier.

"I'm very supportive of why we're there. I'm very supportive of what we did while I was there," says Schneider. "I believe wholeheartedly that not only should we have gone, but that we've done the right thing."

Now, he’d like the military to do the right thing, too.

"Every one of us went over there with the knowledge that we could die," says Schneider. "And then they tell you - you're wounded - or your sacrifice doesn't deserve to be recognized, or we don’t deserve to be on their list – it’s not right. It’s almost disgraceful."





THE WORLD IS A BRIDGE, CROSS IT, BUT BUILD NO HOUSE UPON IT!

“IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? ... TRESSPASS HERE AND FIND OUT”






CIA agent Geoffrey Kemp talking about Saddam Hussein:

“WE KNEW HE WAS A SON OF A BITCH, BUT HE WAS OUR SON OF A BITCH”

So, does this mean that there have actually been a greater number of non-combat casualties than combat related casualties??
I would have never thought that the none combat casualty would be over 15,000, maybe it has some thing to do with the Iraqi terrain and climate!




THE WORLD IS A BRIDGE, CROSS IT, BUT BUILD NO HOUSE UPON IT!

“IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? ... TRESSPASS HERE AND FIND OUT”






CIA agent Geoffrey Kemp talking about Saddam Hussein:

“WE KNEW HE WAS A SON OF A BITCH, BUT HE WAS OUR SON OF A BITCH”

"So, does this mean that there have actually been a greater number of non-combat casualties than combat related casualties??
I would have never thought that the none combat casualty would be over 15,000, maybe it has some thing to do with the Iraqi terrain and climate!"

- Of course there are plenty of other casualties non-report. For examples, the PentaGOON using of hired soldiers; liken them four soldiers of fortunes who were killed and hang on the Fallajah bridge. All the soldiers of fortune are killed or injured are non-reported by the Pentagon.

- Me dare say, the number of 30,000+ is still under reported. IMHO


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I get the feeling the West in general, and USA in particular, have been under-reporting casualties for the last 3 decades.  I really noticed this during the Kosovo air war, and found it unbelievable that Nato only lost 3 warplanes.

Comrade, the first casualty of war is the truth!


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As a rule in modern wars where technology becomes a massive lever towards success, the war gravitates to civilian centers and thus in most modern war, civilian deaths and causlties far outweight combatant loses.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK25Ak03.html

The burden of the wounded
By David Isenberg

US politicians always say, "Nothing is too good for our boys," that is, military personnel. The unspoken implication is that no expense will be spared in equipping, training and, in the worst case, providing the best of medical care for those who are wounded. In fact, the motto of the Veterans Administration is, "to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan", taken from Abraham Lincoln's second presidential inaugural address of March 4, 1865.

These days US government officials have the obligation and opportunity to see that those are more than words, for the continuing fighting in Iraq is producing ever more casualties. On Monday, the Pentagon announced that three Marines who were wounded in action during the Fallujah offensive later died at American hospitals in Germany and the US, raising the US military death toll in Iraq for November to at least 101, 54 of which took place in the Fallujah offensive. That makes November the second worst monthly toll since the start of the war.

Last week the Pentagon officially acknowledged that the total number of US military forces killed in Iraq had reached 1,200. But as there is a lag time between death and official announcements due to confirmation and notification of kin, the actual number was higher. According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count website, US military fatalities in November, as of the 21st, totaled 112, and the cumulative US total since the start of the war was 1,227.

While nothing can be done for those who are killed, except to mourn them and provide benefits to family survivors, treatment of the wounded should be first rate. But sometimes the wounded aren't even listed as such. For example, last Sunday's episode of the US television show 60 Minutes ran a segment called "Iraq: The Uncounted". In it they interviewed a soldier who had lost a leg in a vehicle accident in Iraq. Though he was injured while on a mission in a war zone - and even though he'll receive the same benefits as a soldier who'd been shot - he is not included in the Pentagon's casualty count. Their official tally shows only deaths and wounded in action. It doesn't include "non-combat" injured, those whose injuries were not the result of enemy fire.

Just how many are left uncounted? 60 Minutes asked the Pentagon for an interview. It declined. Instead, it sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq." It is worth noting that is more than the total strength of a single Army division. It is true that most of these cases are not life threatening and many are not even serious. But only 20% return to their units in Iraq. Among those who don't return are soldiers and Marines who suffered crushing bone fractures, spinal injuries, heart problems and psychiatric disorders. And, as noted above, amputations.

In fact, there have been so many of these cases that a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center is scheduled to open in December 2005 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which, unprecedentedly, seeks to return amputee soldiers to the battlefield, as the Washington Times recently reported. Aside from the usual array of physical-therapy equipment, the Military Amputee Training Center will have weapons simulators, a climbing and rappelling wall and military vehicle simulators to help soldiers adapt their prosthetics to driving tanks and trucks.

Walter Reed has already treated about 180 amputees. Earlier this year a Walter Reed official told a congressional committee that amputations accounted for 2.4% of all wounded in action in Iraq, twice the rate in World Wars I and II. Regardless of the overall numbers, those with the task of caring for the wounded know by the number of wounded they treat that the war is still an active one. The number of injured US military personnel arriving at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany this month reached its highest level since April. The troops coming there in the second week of November have been more seriously injured than usual, and twice as many have been wounded in battle, according to the hospital commander, Army Colonel Rhonda Cornum. She said 419 patients had been flown for treatment to Landstuhl since November 8, the day after the offensive began in Fallujah.

About half the patients admitted since the offensive started have needed to be hospitalized. Usually most patients receive outpatient care. Doctors have been working longer shifts and skipping days off. The number of beds in the medical-surgical ward has grown from 64 to 117. The intensive care unit has gone from 20 to 27 beds. Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, the staff at Landstuhl has treated 20,330 patients. More than 17,200 came from Iraq.

In Iraq the ongoing fighting has so strained Army medical staff that Air Force officials deployed expeditionary medical support teams there to assist. The Air Force also deployed a contingency aeromedical staging facility, which prepares patients for a flight to the Landstuhl Army Medical Center.

Illnesses, as well as wounds, can cause serious injury. Earlier this month, Army doctors reported that an unexpectedly high number of US soldiers injured in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East are testing positive for a rare, hard-to-treat blood infection in military hospitals. A total of 102 soldiers were found infected with the bacteria acinetobacter baumannii. Military hospitals typically see about one case per year.

Another category of casualties is emotional and psychological. The Los Angeles Times reported on November 14 that a study by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found that 15.6% of Marines and 17.1% of soldiers surveyed after they returned from Iraq suffered major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. And military mental health experts expect the problem will worsen. They note that the study of 6,200 soldiers and Marines included only troops willing to report their problems. The study did not look at reservists, who tend to suffer a higher rate of psychological injury than career Marines and soldiers. And the soldiers in the study served in the early months of the war, when tours were shorter and before the Iraqi insurgency took shape. The number will likely increase over time, as more soldiers return from duty in Iraq.

As it has become clear that the ongoing insurgency is likely to last for years, with the concomitant impact on US military forces, the Army has been pushing to reach and treat distressed soldiers sooner. The number of mental health professionals deployed in Iraq has been increased. Suicide prevention programs are given to soldiers in the field, and with good reason. Thus far, according to the Pentagon, 31 US troops have killed themselves in Iraq.

Back home, at more than 200 local clinics known as Vet Centers - created in 1979 to reach out to Vietnam veterans - the Veterans Association has increased the number of group therapy sessions and staff. Three months ago, the association hired 50 Iraqi veterans to serve as advocates at the clinics. The death or injury of a soldier also can have a severe impact on his or her survivors.

When an American in a military uniform is killed his or her family receives a one-time death gratuity of US$12,000. The surviving family may also qualify for the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), which is paid up to age 62 or until the spouse remarries. The SBP benefit amounts to 55% of the soldier's retirement pay; pay that is already so low it qualifies many military families for food stamps.

But these "benefits" are contingent on fulfilling many, often petty, regulations. In one reported case a wife did not qualify for the SBP because her husband was in the Marine Corps just under 10 years. Several further benefits, such as the income-based dependency and indemnity compensation, may pay out about $800 per month and $200 per child, depending on the case.

And for those whose wounds are severe enough to be sent back to the US for recovery, those family members who want to be by their side have to fend for themselves. As a November 10 episode of 60 Minutes noted, the government will pay the air fare for two close relatives to make one round trip to and from the hospital, plus about $250 a day for hotels and food. But in most cases, that doesn't begin to cover a family's expenses. The financial stress will certainly worsen for some as many have injuries, such as loss of a limb, that make it impossible to go back to their former civilian jobs. Unlike those who are killed, the military does not provide any lump sum payments for such catastrophic injuries. For such injuries, monthly disability payments are calculated from a fixed set of federal regulations, based on which limbs are amputated and precisely where.

David Isenberg, a senior analyst with the Washington-based British American Security Information Council (BASIC), has a wide background in arms control and national security issues. The views expressed are his own.