http://www.armytimes.com/article/2011021...too-much-weight A newspaper report says combat soldiers are carrying too much weight, leading to increasing injuries.
The report by the Seattle Times found that the number of soldiers medically retired from the Army with at least one musculoskeletal condition increased nearly tenfold from 2003 to 2009, according to Army statistics.
The heavy loads contributed to rising numbers of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans retiring with degenerative arthritis, cervical strains and other musculoskeletal injuries. The newspaper estimated that disability benefits for these injuries exceed $500 million annually.
An Army Science Board study in 2001 recommended that no soldiers carry more than 50 pounds.
Yet the Times said a 2003 Army study found that soldiers on extended foot patrols carry an average load ranging from 87 to 127 pounds.
A study led by a Johns Hopkins University researcher found that nearly one-third of all medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 through 2007 resulted from musculoskeletal, connective-tissue or spinal injuries.
That was more than double the number of evacuations from combat injuries.
