Expert Calls Bin Laden Killing 'Tremendous Blow to Al Qaeda'
University of AlabamaDr. Adam Lankford, assistant professor of criminal justice, is a noted expert on terrorism and terrorists.
Dr. Adam Lankford, assistant professor of criminal justice, is a noted expert on terrorism and terrorists.
Vincent A. Ferraro, a specialist in international relations and American foreign policy at Mount Holyoke College, is available to comment on what Osama Bin Laden’s death means for the future of U.S. relations with both Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the impact that Bin Laden’s death will have on the war on terror.
Faculty experts and scholars from the University at Buffalo are available to comment on the political, cultural, international and economic impact of Osama bin Laden’s death.
Cornell University experts available to comment on Osama bin Laden’s death.
Dr. John C. McManus, a military historian and the author of “Grunts,” a book about the importance of ground forces in recent U.S. military history, is available to discuss the role highly trained “boots on the ground” played in Sunday’s killing of Osama Bin Laden.
An authority on terrorism and nationalism at the University of Indianapolis says the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is worth celebrating, but it should not distract the United States from the ideological struggle it still faces in the Islamic world. Douglas Woodwell, Ph.D., is available for interviews.
Stronger and tougher body armor to shield the chest, abdomen and back may be just what soldiers fighting in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars need to better protect their brains from mild injuries tied to so-called “shell shock,” results of a Johns Hopkins study in mice suggest.
Two Kansas State researchers are collecting and analyzing information on the financial situation of deploying soldiers and their families. It will be the largest publicly collected sample by a university regarding financial matters of U.S. Army soldiers.
Soldiers and contractors stationed in Iraq not only face enemy gunfire and the threat of roadside bombs, but every day they breathe air polluted with dust particles carrying lead and other contaminants as much as 10 times above desirable level cited in U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
The inaugural Second Lt. Afghan Language Program, offered by the Indiana National Guard and Indiana U., was intense and an encouraging sign of the potential for highly specialized training for military and other personnel serving overseas.
Aerial bombing missions during counterinsurgency operations are often counterproductive because they drive neutral civilians to the enemy side, according to peer-reviewed research that examined detailed data from Vietnam.
Bassam Yousif, associate professor of economics at Indiana State University, grew up in Iraq until he emigrated to the United Kingdom when he was 14. He says for conditions in Iraq to improve, the nation must address the void left from millions of Iraqis fleeing the nation.
A study from Indiana University finds the link between veteran status and volunteering is stronger for some subgroups than for others, raising questions about military-civilian relationships.
After analyzing data on 2,155 private contractors, diplomats and other civilians supporting war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan who were medically evacuated out of combat zones, researchers have found they are more likely to be evacuated for noncombat-related injuries, but more likely to return to work in-country after treatment for these conditions.
Four new fact sheets addressing the impact of the injuries of war, both physical and psychological, on intimacy have just been released for healthcare providers and affected military families. Developed by USU's Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress the injury and intimacy fact sheets are part of a larger military health campaign called Courage to Care Courage to Talk (www.couragetotalk.org) that was launched in March of 2010 by the Center’s Child & Family Program as a resource for military health treatment centers and organizations dedicated to wounded warrior care that educate about and facilitate communication around difficult topics involving the impact of combat injury on service members and families.
A new support service is being offered to personnel at Fort Hood in Texas. It is operated by the University Behavioral HealthCare unit of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and patterned after a successful UMDNJ program that has served N.J. veterans for nearly six years.
For troubled war veterans, a friendly bartender can be the source of more than just drinks and a sympathetic ear.
Hannah Rudstam, senior extension associate at the Employment and Disability Institute in Cornell University’s ILR School comments on implications of the poll, “Recruiting Veterans with Disabilities: Perceptions in the Workplace.” The Cornell institute and the Society for Human Resource Management released the poll of more than 1,000 human resource professionals on Jan. 14.
Details of a new mental health training program being used throughout the Army to promote psychological resilience and improve soldiers’ performance are featured in a special issue of American Psychologist, the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association.
Noncombatant military personnel do not engage in direct combat with the enemy during war, but they still face trauma that elevates their risk for developing combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), new research shows.
Animal experiments suggest that taking the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexanoic acid (DHA) might offer a new way of protecting against traumatic brain injury (TBI), reports the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
A team of researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has developed the first web-based screening tool for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). It is estimated that about seven percent of people in the United States have diagnosed or undiagnosed TBI.
Combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms appear to be associated with longer-term physical (headache, tinnitus), emotional (irritability) and cognitive (diminished concentration or memory) symptoms, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Conversely, concussion/mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) do not appear to have long-term negative effects on troops.
Post-traumatic seizures and epilepsy can develop anytime from immediately to days or weeks to more than a decade after brain injury. Not all military personnel who have experienced combat-related TBI obtain care in the VA hospital system. Many integrate into civilian medical practice and receive care from healthcare professionals who might not recognize TBI as the cause of the epilepsy.
More than half of all combat-related injuries sustained by U.S. troops are the result of explosions, and many of those involve injuries to the head. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, about 130,000 U.S. service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have sustained traumatic brain injuries — ranging from concussion to long-term brain damage and death — as a result of an explosion. A recent analysis by a team of researchers led by MIT reveals one possible way to prevent those injuries — adding a face shield to the helmet worn by military personnel.
Inside a non-descript, soundproof building on the south side of town, researchers from Missouri University of Science of Technology are building an audio battlefield, complete with the sounds of tanks, ordinance, gunfire, shouting and helicopters.
Saint Louis University will work to improve treatment for wounded service members and civilians.
Female veterans aged 20-39 about half as likely to engage in binge drinking as male counterparts (23 percent versus 43 percent).
A Saint Louis University neuropsychologist offers advice to veterans recovering from mild traumatic brain injury.
As the nation recognizes Veteran’s Day on Nov. 11, the University of Michigan Health System has experts available to discuss the health and well-being of America’s troops. Read on for story ideas related to the work and sacrifices of the military.
American soldiers are taking their own lives in the largest numbers since the military began keeping records, and the Department of Defense has enlisted the help of The Florida State University in waging the war against suicide.
Symposium highlights how experiences in Iraq may provide insight for effectively treating post traumatic stress disorders and other serious psychological conditions.
After returning from deployment, military personnel are screened for mental health and other health-related concerns. But the effects of injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury can surface three to six months later, says Mary Beth Dunkenberger, senior program director with Virginia Tech’s Institute for Policy and Governance.
A device developed by Sandia National Laboratories researchers that shoots a blade of water capable of penetrating steel is headed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to help them disable deadly improvised explosive devices, or IEDs — the No. 1 killer and threat to troops in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.
Protecting helicopters in combat from heat-seeking missiles is the goal of new laser technology created at the University of Michigan and Omni Sciences, Inc., which is a U-M spin-off company.
An antibacterial peptide looks to be a highly-effective therapy against infections in burn or blast wounds suffered by soldiers.
Research from the University of Washington finds that digital media, such as mobile phones and the Internet, have become all but essential in building democracies.
U.S. Army Helps contractor produce graduation video for father’s commencement at Nova Southeastern University.
Since returning home, some 100,000 veterans from the first Gulf War have reported chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) similar to fibromyalgia, and a new study in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society, shows that acute exercise can exacerbate the pain but long-term exercise has the opposite outcome and reduces it.
Once stationed in Afghanistan, Army Reserve Officer and University of Houston College of Optometry alumnus Dr. Ben Uhl soon realized that he was not the only Houston Cougar serving in the war-torn country.
One of the world’s leading scholars about the Kurds, Michael Gunter, a Tennessee Tech University political science professor, has strong opinions about drawing down of U.S. troops in Iraq. Reporters interested in the topic are invited to interview Gunter on how this affects Iraq, the Kurds, U.S. policy in Afghanistan and domestic issues, including upcoming elections and the economy.
Recent research at Washington State University (WSU) suggests that, for many U.S. veterans, combat is a defining experience that often sets the trajectory of the balance of their lives.
Brian F. Carso, Jr., J.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of history and director of the pre-law and Government, Law & National Security programs at Misericordia University, is an expert on treason and is available to discuss WikiLeaks and the war in Afghanistan.
Despite the U.S. military’s reliance on technology in modern warfare, American troops on the ground – the “grunts” – have proven to be the crucial difference between victory and defeat, says military historian John C. McManus in a new book about America’s ground forces.
Stefan Bossmann, professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, recently opened K-State's organic chemistry teaching lab to 30 soldiers with the 172nd Chemical-Biological-Radiological-Nuclear Company at Fort Riley. The soldiers met for a day of basic training in organic chemistry which could prove invaluable in combat since they specialize in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear detection and decontamination on the battlefield.
The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University will welcome 23 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraqi conflicts to its Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) on July 24. The program, offered entirely free (including travel and accommodations) to post-9/11 veterans, provides men and women representing all four branches of the U.S. military with cutting-edge training in entrepreneurship and small business management in an effort to help them “create their own jobs.”
Soldiers who receive traumatic brain injuries during war may be at a higher risk of epilepsy even decades after the brain injury occurred. The new research is published in the July 20, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A compelling article details the experiences of a group of pediatric neurosurgeons over the course of a 2-year mission at Bagram Airfield/Heathe N. Craig Joint Theater Hospital (CJTH), 27 miles north of Kabul. While there, they performed lifesaving procedures on innocent young bystanders of the military conflict in Afghanistan. The authors provide more than a glimpse into the types of injuries incurred by innocent children – they include statistics on the types of injuries and neurosurgical procedures performed, including four illustrative case studies.
It’s no secret that Americans tend to throw their support behind a sitting U.S. president when the nation is thrust into a war. New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests these "rally effects" represent a collective reaction to a specific human emotion – anger.
The current tension between President Obama and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is nothing new in the presidency, says military historian Dr. John C. McManus.