American History has been described as constant war, punctuated by periods of peace. Depending on your count, America has been involved in 85 “wars” since 1776. Practically every year in our 250 year history had American service members in harm’s way, frequently in multiple areas of the world. Whether fighting Indians or Iranians; whether alone or in alliances; whether defending direct American interests, or the sovereignty of the oppressed, American service members have bled and died, doing their duty.

Memorial Day. We remember. An historical event, a looking back, a time of reverie and commitment to do better.

Veterans and their families with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) are in a similar boat as NCAA athletes suffering debilitating concussion symptoms. Two recent legal cases involving former college football players diagnosed with dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) display close parallels.

Back when Trent Lott was the senior Senator from Mississippi, he said during Congressional hearings on treating veteran brain wounds that “It’s funny in a sad way that I can get HBOT for my race horses but not for Veterans.” SEN Lott retired in 2007 and twenty years later his sentiment is still true, but with a twist. Not only are horses still getting healed with HBOT, but Veterans are probably going to get access under VA coverage to powerful psychedelics and dissociative hallucinogens while Congress continues to punt on using a safe, effective, scientifically validated, and widely available and inexpensive treatment. But we expect “more research” from a VA that claims on its web page: “We are the world’s leading research and educational center of excellence on PTSD and traumatic stress.” Notice they don’t say “We excel in clinical care” or “We cure what ails them and give them their lives back.” No, their measure of excellence is research and education. Perhaps in terms of amount of money spent, but in no way sufficient for the needs of the Veteran.

We draw your attention to the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), in use worldwide for 14 FDA-approved Indications, and already approved for wound healing. Over 12,500 Veterans have already seen their lives dramatically improved through brain wound healing using HBOT. Over 180 TreatNOW Coalition clinics have been healing Veterans for two decades using protocols demonstrated to be safe and effective in 28 peer-reviewed clinical studies. The entire country of Israel, starting with the IDF over a decade ago, have been using HBOT safely and effectively to heal TBI/PTSD/Blast injuries.

The Important message: HBOT is ready, today. It is in use, safe, effective, proven, and hugely economical over the current standards of care. Over 161,000 Veteran suicides continue the upward trend in relying on “more research” while DoD and the VA spend over $357 Billion over ten years on Suicide Prevention, the “#1 Clinical Priority.”

A major newspaper coined a new category for repetitive falsehoods, the “Bottomless Pinocchio.” These are falsehoods repeated at least twenty times. We are adding to the brain-wounded totals. We can only hope that we stay in the hundreds, not the tens and hundreds of thousands over the last twenty years. But in what is surely a first, DOD reported in less than two weeks that of at least 140 of the 290 U.S. troops reported wounded last month, 140 have been officially classified as TBI-related.