US media: US Navy SEALs exposed to shooting shock waves for a long time, many of them suffered brain damage
According to a report by The New York Times, a U.S. military laboratory found that many Navy SEALs suffered obvious brain damage due to long-term exposure to shock waves from their own shooting, leading to emotional problems and even suicide.
The report said that in the past 10 years, at least a dozen Navy SEALs have died by suicide. The families of eight of them sent their brains to the Department of Defense military laboratory in Maryland. Researchers found that the brains of every suicide had damage caused by shock waves.
The lab found a pattern of damage that could only be seen in people who were repeatedly exposed to blast waves. The vast majority of the SEALs' blast wave exposure came from handling their own weapons, suggesting that years of training designed to improve performance were causing brain damage.
The results of the test were hidden because of the lab's privacy guidelines and miscommunication within the military agency, the report said. The lab's findings were not reported to SEAL leadership, nor were they asked about by leadership.
The Navy was not informed of the test results until The Times informed it of the research findings, the report said.
Evidence suggests the damage may be common among other SEALs, according to the report. A Harvard study published in the spring of 2024 scanned the brains of 30 career special operations personnel and found a correlation between blast wave exposure and changes in brain structure and impaired brain function.
The study found that the more blast wave exposure these men experienced, the more health and quality-of-life problems they reported. Suicides make up only a small percentage of SEALs, but many suffer from depression, paranoia and substance abuse, the report said.
Shock waves may kill brain cells without causing any immediately noticeable symptoms, “but over time it adds up,” said Daneshwar, director of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. Once the damage accumulates to a critical level, Daneshwar said, “people fall off a cliff.”