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An army sergeant brings back bad memories. In the first week of the year, First Class Andrea Hayden revived the 2020 missile barrage at an Iraqi air force base that nearly ended her life.
Three years ago on Sunday, an Iranian ballistic missile hit about 1,000 troops at the Al-Asad air base, about 100 miles west of Baghdad.
No US soldiers were killed in the attack, but the effects are lingering for more than 100 soldiers diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.
Hayden and another survivor of the attack, Patrick Silvers, gave a series of interviews to talk about living with a traumatic brain injury.
“I was really depressed the first year because it felt like everything I was working for was gone,” Silvers said. “That was the only time I thought about suicide.”
At the time, he recalled, “I’m not used to the idea of ’I can’t do anything anymore. I’m failing at everything I do.'”
The impact was also great for Hayden. Hayden continues to struggle with balance, and he often experiences panic-inducing dizziness.
“It definitely affected my short-term memory,” she said of the attack. put away.
When they wanted to avoid discussing particularly painful topics in interviews, they referenced their quote in an Army statement last fall when they received the Purple Heart at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
Three years ago, Hayden served as a behavioral problem expert deployed to Al-Asad. She was part of a team duo with Sylvers, a major and army psychologist.
Both were assigned to the 1st Medical Detachment, 1972 (Combat and Operational Stress Control), Army Reserve, based at Lewis-McChord.
On January 7, 2020, Hayden and Silvers flew out of Al-Asad to join the rest of the forces in Kuwait and return home.
Troops at the base were warned to prepare for an attack by 11 p.m., Hayden and Silvers recalled. Hayden said the bunkers filled up early that night.
However, by midnight there was no strike and the troops were restless. Some began to leave the bunker, she recalled.
In 2020, CNN reported that the missile hit at around 1:34 am. The 47-year-old remembers people in the bunker telling him they would close the door if they weren’t in a hurry, so he ran inside.
Hayden said he could see nothing in the pitch blackness of the bunker. But when the missile hit the ground, the impact felt like an earthquake, she said.
Troops stumbled out of their bunkers at dawn.According to The Washington Post, about 11 missiles about 40 feet long and with 1,600-pound warheads hit the base. The impact created craters up to 30 feet wide.
Silvers recalls extensive damage, including seeing half a helicopter on fire in the middle of the street.
Hayden came out of the bunker and asked someone for a cigarette. She remembers calling her family to tell them she was still alive and that she was using a shattered bathroom with no privacy.
They found an undamaged car in the parking lot. They put it into action and went back to work like many others on the base.
A Pentagon official stressed that no servicemen were killed in the barrage. Days later, Trump told a news conference that several soldiers had complained of headaches, but that they weren’t “very serious injuries.”
That statement drew criticism from veterans advocates. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans founder Paul Rickhoff said at the time that the comments downplayed the severity of the traumatic brain injury.
TBI has been called one of the signature injuries of the Twenty Years of War. The Pentagon says it has tracked 463,392 cases since 2000, according to the latest figures for Aug. 10, 2022.
Troops at the base began showing symptoms of a traumatic brain injury over the next few days, Hayden and Silvers said. I talked about
Hayden recalls the absent-minded look on everyone’s faces at the time. Their eyes seemed larger than normal.
She herself began to feel strange, forgetting the names of people she had known for months.
The two flew to Kuwait four days later, an army statement about the pair in September said.
Detachment Sergeant Master Sergeant when they arrived at the base hospital for evaluation. David Cantu looked them up. He said it was clear that the two needed medical attention.
“These were not the same soldiers we sent,” Cantu recalled in an Army statement.
After leaving a hospital in Kuwait, Hayden went for a walk. Then she started feeling dizzy and her heart was pounding. She had to sit by the roadside.
“It was clear that something wasn’t quite what it was supposed to be,” she said.
The three years since the attack have been tough mentally and physically for Silvers and Hayden. Silvers said he doesn’t remember much about the year after the attack.
“The first year is like a whirlwind,” he said.
However, he remembers chronic migraines, double vision, and changes in mood, appetite, and sleep.
He had to quit his job in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ primary care mental health department and lost his tenure-track teaching position at the University of Washington.
Silvers has helped military and veterans with their mental health, but found that they were reluctant to accept help from others.
Both said their treatment helped them manage their condition.
Silvers is medically retired from the Army Reserves in 2021. He obtained special glasses from his McCord Joint Base Lewis to preserve his sight.
He currently works at a center that provides counseling to veterans with TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder. Silvers said his experience has allowed him to connect more deeply with the veterans he supports.
Last September 11, Silvers reunited with Hayden, now 40, at the Purple Heart ceremony at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Since the attack, the two have been texting each other for support, but the ceremony marked the first time they had met since returning home from deployment.
Hayden currently works from home as a data administrator for a utility company and currently serves in the Army Reserve. On her one year anniversary of her attack, she adopted her four-year-old terrier named Ruby.
“It was a ray of hope,” Hayden said. “I got her, so it’s always nice to remember that day as a good day.”
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