Military members face tough re-entry
EDITOR’S NOTE: Columnist John Ostwald will submit daily columns for the two weeks prior to Veterans Day. The columns cover a variety of armed forces issues. The information in the columns comes from interviews with veterans and family members, research and John’s perspective as an educator and veteran. It starts in boot camp. It is a change in everything. The way we talk, walk, feel and think. It is supposed to be that way.
Going “Back to the World” or civilian life usually raises a number of challenges depending on the circumstances of your service. When I returned home during the Vietnam era, I didn’t wear anything that would identify me as a veteran. There was too much anger, chaos and confusion in the country about the war. Some men and women now proudly display their veteran status with badges, hats, parts of uniforms and tattoos. It is a different time and different wars.
After serving a tour in Germany, Kurt Engler, an American G.I, was discharged in 1963 the year that President Kennedy was assassinated. He kept his uniforms close by because of talk of a “war alert” associated with the tragedy. Kurt said it was the happiest day of his life when he turned in his M-14 weapon. He vowed never to own or fire a gun again. He has kept that promise and is now seventy eight years old.
My question to the veteran of the Iraq war was simply, “How was it coming home?” He looked down as he said, “Hard. I had a drinking problem, insomnia and I didn’t want to work for a less than a quality leader.” The now middle aged man felt that his current boss was very deficient; “not a quality leader.” He ended his comments with, “some of my veteran friends, who returned, had car accidents and completed suicide.”
A retired colonel said “Going to work in downtown Albany, New York was surreal because there was no evidence of the war that I was used to. I thought that I would just pick up where I left off. I had the illusion that because I was a colonel that I was okay. I wasn’t.” “After a ferry trip in New York City, where I felt a flood of emotions, I told my four kids about my emotional chaos. Then I sought help.”
A twenty-five year old marine who spent some time in jail after his return to society said this, “If we could go back in time, many people were able to reintegrate into society after war despite seeing a much higher frequency of violent occurrences. These days society is so extremely detached from war that the disconnect is even greater for our returning service members. That feeling of being disenfranchised only serves to isolate the veteran and complicate the existing problem of culture shock he or she will certainly experience.”
Some veterans have so much difficulty adjusting to civilian life that they volunteer to back to combat zones where they find acceptance and structure even though their lives may be in danger. Remember the film, “The Shawshank Redemption”? One of the main characters had so much trouble adjusting to his new world after incarceration that he completed suicide.
Benedict Carey in Health magazine stated that, “After 14 years of war, the number of veterans with multiple tours of combat duty is the largest in modern American history — more than 90,000 soldiers and Marines, many of them elite fighters who deployed four or more times. New evidence suggests that these veterans are not like most others when it comes to adjusting to civilian life.”
Marlon Brando said in the 1958 movie The Young Lions, “two wars, one away from home and one at home. I was afraid I was going to die. Now, I’m afraid I am going to live.” In a more current military film, Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood’s character says to his soldiers, “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome,” This is the unofficial slogan among Marines. All veterans are capable of using this approach when challenged with readjustment to civilian life.