Link to Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com.au/Blast-Wave-Post-Courier-Selects-ebook/dp/B00F54AWZY --> BlastWave An exploding bomb unleashes a nearly invisible wave of pressure that hits as hard as a boxer’s blow. Tens of thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to these blasts, leaving some with lasting brain damage. This is a story about invisible injuries, what sports is teaching the military about concussions, and what military bomb hunters are teaching us in return. By Tony Bartelme April 2010, Helmand Province. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jonathan “Bax” Baxley is in an armored troop carrier, strapped in the gunner’s turret. His fingers warm the handle of an M240 machine gun; his eyes scan the Afghan plains for Taliban and IEDs. From his perch, Baxley can see that the late afternoon sun has lost its glare, casting everything around his convoy in a hundred shades of orange. Craggy mountains are to his right, a village ...