Veterans groups put focus on traumatic brain injuries: “They still need the help and support you would have given an amputee”

November 11, 2026 / 12:45 PM EST / CBS News

This Veterans Day, advocates are raising awareness about traumatic brain injury and the impact of these types of wounds on the post-9/11 military generation.

Dozens of service members have suffered TBIs during the current conflict with Iran, and hundreds of thousands of veterans have been diagnosed with it over the quarter-century of the U.S.'s global war on terrorism. The recovery can be lifelong.

"The only thing I sort of remember is kind of a mayday call," Army veteran Jon Kohl told CBS News, recalling his 2013 helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

The crash happened just one month shy of Kohl's 25th birthday, leaving him gravely wounded, including with a severe TBI.

"The first moment I saw him, I said it was a miracle he was alive," said his mother, Micha Kohl.

His parents rushed to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, to be by their son's side.

"They had to remove about a quarter to a third of his skull to relieve the pressure," said Paul Kohl.

It would be a year before Jon Kohl could swallow, and doctors said there was a good chance he wouldn't be able to walk…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/