Robert Card: The Tragedy of His Brain  

By Shlomo Maital  

   Last October, a terrible tragedy unfolded in little Lewiston, Maine.  Robert Card, 40-year-old Army reservist and veteran, shot and killed 18 people!  Then he committed suicide.

    The shooting was especially lethal, because Card was a certified Army firearms instructor. 

     Why?????

     Unlike many such mass shootings (by the way – they are the #1 cause of death now, among children!), this one had a clear explanation.  The BBC reported on its website:

       “… doctors said on Wednesday that he may have suffered brain injuries during military drills.  Card was a long-time instructor at an Army hand grenade training range, according to a statement released by the Concussion Legacy Foundation on Wednesday.   During that time he was exposed to “thousands of low-level blasts”, the organization said.  Dr Ann McKee from Boston University’s CTE [Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy] Center, who conducted the study of Card’s brain, said that nerve fibres in Card’s brain showed “significant degeneration… inflammation” and “small blood vessel injury”.“ (CTE is what many retired National Football League players suffer, after repeated blows to the head, even when protected by high-tech helmets). 

       In a typical training session for West Point cadets, Card would supervise over a thousand cadets, each of whom would throw two grenades on a firing range.  One session – 2,000 explosions.  Many such sessions – many thousands of explosions.

       Card told people he heard voices, that said terrible things about him – that he was a pedophile.  Those repeated explosions literally scrambled his brain.  The damaged nerve fibers are the ‘wires’ that connect brain cells and transmit messages. 

        In my army service, in a reserve artillery unit, my job was to scout future placements.  I generally was far from the blasts themselves.  But what about the gun crews?  And what about all the kids who play Pop Warner football?  And the football players in college? And in the NFL?

          It is time we showed new respect for our delicate brains.  If avoidable, we need to guard them from blasts, blows or other harmful things.  Robert Card was not to blame.  His army service scrambled his brain.  How many others suffer from similar damage?