Introducing the Overpressured Warfighters Act of 2025 (OWA2025)

Army Mortarmen exposed to blast overpressure and particulate smoke & dust.
Stand with Our Troops and Veterans - Sign & Share the Petition Now Welcome to the Fight for Military Health, the OWA2025 – Morally Right, Fiscally Responsible The Fight: From Silence to StrengthBlast overpressure (BOPE)—those brain-rattling hits from mortars, artillery, rockets—hurts our troops and vets. I’m Todd Strader, a mortarman who felt thousands of 4 psi blasts—headaches, fog, scars nobody saw. Our Cohort of OverPressured Warfighters—3,000 strong worldwide—lives it too (NY Times, 5/2/24). Today’s plan? A $70 million plan to kick the can down the road for another year, it’s empty past 2025 (NDAA 2025). Healthcare eats $20 billion—400,000 brain injuries since 2000 stay silent (DoD, 2023). The V.A.'s own Dr. Ralph DePalma called it a “silent carnage”—ICD10-S06.8A, “Primary blast injury of brain”, still sits unused. (VA Research Currents, 10/26/22). The OWA2025 isn’t a prolonged field trip into blast overpressure, it’s an aggressively decisive horse-collar tackle from deep in the backfield. A bold play by the Cohort of OverPressured Warfighters who have had enough. To date, several well-meaning efforts have been made to methodically clear the ground and lay a foundation for addressing this issue. These efforts have delivered a mountain of anecdotal, circumstantial and scientific evidence but no real action and at a glacial pace. Meanwhile the Cohort’s suffering goes on without real answers and action. We require much more and much sooner as we are already well past the point of action being warranted. The O.W.A. takes this ground and builds a fortress against the damage being done by these occupational blast exposures, it is created not to upend the system but strengthen it. What is the Overpressured Warfighters Act of 2025?The OWA2025 is a critical bill that calls on Congress to officially classify occupational exposure to BOPE and associated particulate matter as health hazards. It ensures prevention, monitoring, treatment, and support for active-duty personnel and veterans, while amending the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 to recognize these exposures as toxic events. Key Provisions Include:- Health Hazard Recognition: Mandating the Department of Defense to integrate these risks into safety policies.- Comprehensive Monitoring: Providing health assessments from enlistment to retirement to catch and address issues early.- Expanded Benefits: Extending VA benefits for related conditions like TBIs, PTSD, and respiratory diseases.- Innovative Research: Funding studies into long-term effects and non-traditional treatments like neurofeedback and TMS.- Education and Cultural Change: Launching programs to raise awareness and shift military culture towards health prioritization. Why it matters Our community, including nearly 3,000 members of The Cohort of OverPressured Warfighters, knows firsthand the devastating impact of these exposures, we live it everyday. Media outlets like The New York Times, NPR, and Military.com have amplified our voices, but legislative action is needed now. OWA2025 addresses both immediate health needs and future prevention, saving lives, reducing long-term costs, and honoring our veterans. Help us Take Action Now Join us in this fight! Sign our Online Petition to urge Congress to support and introduce the OWA2025. Your voice can make a difference for our troops and veterans. Click the link below to add your name and share this critical cause: This Act is our chance to ensure that those who defend our freedoms are not left to suffer the unseen scars of their service.Together, we can ensure that our service members receive the protection, care, and respect they deserve. Visit our Facebook Community for more information and to connect with others in this movement.

  • Fiscal Summary: Dollars That Deliver, OWA2025 isn’t just heart—it’s cash sense.
  • • Today: $21B spent, $3B saved = $18B cost
  • • OWA2025: $45B spent, $19B saved = $26B cost—$10B win

  • Details here: Download the Bill and Fiscal Summary Here.

  • The Fix - Here’s how we make it happen:
  • • Track Every Blast: Gear like a Fitbit for bombs—wearable tech—logs every hit (Section 5). Think mortar ranges, artillery drills—every 4 psi blast gets counted, not ignored. Pelta-6®, a vet-made shield, cuts 20–40% of that damage (SBIR, p7). No more “silent”—we see it, we stop it (Stone, 2024).

  • • Test and Catch It Early: Checkups—heart tests (EKG), brain scans (EEG), blood markers—spot damage before it’s too late (Section 6). Docs look at your ticker, your head, even proteins showing brain hits (Agoston, 2022). Yearly tests for high-risk troops—gunners, breachers—catch what today’s plan misses. It’s about saving lives, not just stats (NPR, 1/14/25).

  • • Name the Pain: S06.8A—“Primary blast injury of brain”—gets real. We train docs—$155 million—to spot “carnage” fast (Section 6(c)(2)). In 90 days, they’re learning—180 days, they’re coding (VA News, 10/26/22). That headache? That fog? It’s not “nothing”—it’s proof, and we’ve got it (Stone, 2024).
  • • Help That Lasts: 250,000 vets get care—$3 billion locked in—no budget tricks (Sections 9(f), 16). Retroactive claims—artillery vets from years back—get payouts, not excuses. $19 billion saved—$8 billion fewer brain injuries, $5 billion faster help—means we’re healing, not hiding (Appendix, p15).

  • It’s personal—3,000 of us shook NY Times with “Guys Are Getting Destroyed”—OWA2025 turns that pain into a win (NY Times, 5/2/24). From ranges to VA clinics, we’re fixing what’s broken—right for us, smart for the books.

  • Written by the affected- for the affected, where all involved stand to gain and prosper and a victory flag can be planted on a hill feared to be unscalable.
  • Stand with Our Troops and Veterans
  • Sign & Share the Petition Now