Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling is a national security, intelligence and terrorism analyst for CNN. He served for 37 years in the Army, including three years in combat, and retired as commanding general of US Army Europe and the 7th Army. He is the author of "Growing Physician Leaders." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely his. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) In Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, President Donald Trump faced pointed questions about the disparity between his initial remarks that no US service members had been injured in the Iranian missile strike on Al-Assad Air Base in Northern Iraq and more recent reports that troops were being treated for those injuries in Kuwait and at Landstuhl hospital in Germany.

"I heard they had headaches and a couple of other things," said the President , "but I would say, and I can report, it's not very serious."

When a journalist asked, "So you don't consider potential traumatic brain injury serious?" Trump responded, "I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen."

Mark Hertling

The report of 11 (maybe more) service members being evacuated to either the hospital in Kuwait or the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany after a major missile strike -- one which subjected these soldiers to hundreds of pounds of pressure that was much more significant than any roadside bomb -- was a prudent decision, as commanders and their staff surgeons place caring for those in their command as a top priority.

I would have done the same had I been in command. That's because those who know about these things understand a blast injury can result in much more than a "headache," and the lack of transparency in treatment may very well contribute to serious and even debilitating injuries.

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