A devastating combat reality:
The upward blast of an IED often rips off lower limbs as high as the hip, as well as the genitals. … In some cases the perineum, the seam at the bottom of the torso, is ripped open and the intestines and other organs spill out, a Navy combat corpsman told me. One out of five Americans whom the Army medically evacuated from Afghanistan last October suffered such wounds, which the military calls genitourinary, or "GU," wounds. … According to the Army task force report on severe IED wounds, a number [of troops] have developed "do not resuscitate" pacts in case they suffer traumatic genital amputation.
The Army has begun to ship tens of thousands of pairs of "armored overgarments — in effect, diapers — to try to protect soldiers’ genitals from blasts."
(Photo: U.S. Marine Cpl Ryan Yeaton (L) and LCpl. Benjamin Harshman with India Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment comfort each other after escorting the remains Marine LCpl. Francisco Jackson to an aircraft to begin the ride home on October 19, 2010 in Kajaki, Afghanistan. Yeaton and Harshman were with Jackson when he was killed by an improvised explosive device while on patrol earlier in the day. By Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The Dish 