Combat exposure, closed-head injury, and the medical record that followed.

Two combat-exposure events in theater

4 October 2011 — vehicle-borne IED, Gate 2, Kandahar Airfield. A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated at the British-run dining facility at Gate 2, with blast effects carried through the structure. This is recorded as the first combat-exposure event of the deployment.

On or about 12–22 October 2011 — rocket attack, billeting area. During a nighttime rocket attack on the billeting area, the officer was thrown from his bunk by blast effects and sustained a closed-head injury with loss of consciousness. The medical record documents a history of head trauma with loss of consciousness. The exact date of the event is held by the battalion commander; the archive records the window as it stands and flags the missing date as a matter the subject has asked the Army to reconcile through a sworn statement from the rating chain.

VA determination

The Department of Veterans Affairs rated the subject service-connected for traumatic brain injury, effective 21 August 2012 — the month after redeployment. This is the institutional finding the Army record has not yet been aligned to. The archive treats the VA rating as a confirmed fact and distinguishes it from the Army record-correction requests, which remain under adjudication.

Supporting medical evidence

The medical file that supports the TBI diagnosis and rating is built from contemporaneous and independent evaluations rather than a single document. Key elements include:

• Theater and contemporaneous service medical records covering the 2011 blast exposure and a FOB Farah Battalion Aid Station visit.
• SPECT imaging (Amen Clinics, 14 November 2018) — functional brain imaging interpreted as consistent with blast-related injury.
• Independent medical evaluation by Dr. Nicholas Welch, MD (8 August 2025) — the Welch independent nexus letter on file.
• Ongoing clinical workup documenting TBI sequelae and related conditions, including obstructive and mixed sleep apnea managed on BiPAP with residual central events, and endocrine and cardiac findings under continuing evaluation.

TBI sequelae and related conditions

The clinical record describes traumatic-brain-injury sequelae alongside related conditions identified in the post-deployment workup, including the sleep apnea noted above. The archive records these findings as they appear in the medical evidence, by source and date, and does not characterize them beyond what the evaluations state.