SEATTLE -- Before venturing out on patrol in Iraq, Spc. Joseph Chroniger would wrap his upper body in armor, then sling on a vest and pack that contained batteries for his radio, water, food, flashlight, ammunition and other gear. With his M4 rifle, the whole get-up weighed 70 to 80 pounds -- and left him aching.

His body hurt the most when his squad came under attack and he tried to run or dive on the ground. His neck and shoulders would burn as if on fire.

Since returning to Western Washington 2½ years ago, Chroniger has been diagnosed with bone spurs in the vertebrae of his neck caused by a degenerative arthritic condition. Sometimes, the pain is intense, and he dreads getting out of bed in the morning.

“This is ridiculous,” Chroniger said. “I'm only 25 years old. Arthritis is supposed to happen when you get old. What's it going to be like when I'm 50 or 60?”

Chroniger's injury is a symptom of the overloaded U.S. combat forces that have served in the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2001, an Army Science Board study, noting that weight carried by soldiers could decrease mobility and increase fatigue and injury, recommended no soldier carry more than 50 pounds for any length of time. The Army chief of staff hoped to approach that goal by 2010.

But the loads combat soldiers typically carry remain far above that goal.

That weight has helped fuel an avalanche of musculoskeletal injuries that are eroding the combat-readiness of the military. Long after the fighting ends, injuries such as Chroniger's will remain a painful and expensive legacy of these wars.

-- Nearly one-third of all medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 through 2007 resulted from musculoskeletal, connective-tissue or spinal injuries, according to a study led by a Johns Hopkins University researcher. That was more than double the number of evacuations from combat injures.

-- The number of soldiers medically retired from the Army with at least one musculoskeletal condition increased nearly 10-fold from 2003 to 2009, according to Army statistics.

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