As injuries increase out of Afghanistan, WTUs adjust entry criteria

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First Lt. Robert Burke works to build strength in his shoulder during a physical therapy session in 2008 at the Arvin Cadet Physical Development Center at The United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. The Army has seen a steep drop in the number of soldiers assigned to WTUs because of tighter restrictions on who should be sent to the units.


As injuries increase out of Afghanistan, WTUs adjust entry criteria
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, November 18, 2009

ILSECK, Germany — Army warrior transition units have seen a small surge in the number of patients coming from Afghanistan in recent months, but overall the number of soldiers being sent to the specialized care units has dramatically dropped in the last year because of tighter restrictions on admitting troops.

In October, 191 of 730 patients entering WTUs came from Afghanistan, according to U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command’s strategic communication chief Robert Moore. That is up from July, when 159 of 743 of patients in WTUs came from Afghanistan, Moore said.

Overall, the number of soldiers in the units increased to 8,883 in October from 8,771 in July, coinciding with an increase in violence in Afghanistan. Since August, 159 U.S. troops have died in fighting in Afghanistan, according to iCasualties.org. In the first seven months of this year, 131 soldiers died.

But the current number of soldiers in the 34 WTUs throughout the United States and Europe is considerably lower than in years past, said Lt. Col. Thomas Axtman, commander of the Army’s Warrior Transition Battalion in Europe. At the high point, there were up to 15,000 soldiers in WTUs worldwide, he said.

The biggest reason for the overall drop is tighter restrictions on who should be admitted to the units, Axtman said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66169