Life After the Military

Life After the Military

Part 1, by Kevin Griffis

The United States of America has a defense budget of $692 billion for 2011 and numbers 1.5 million strong. The military prepares people for life. The Army encourages recruits to “be all you can be”, and to become “Army strong.” The Air Force challenges to “Do something amazing.”

Boot camp molds individuals into a cohesive unit. Battle tests a person's character and faith. To be in the armed forces is to be a member of a massive family. So what happens when a family member gets hurt and isn't a part of the family anymore?

For those who enlist in the armed forces boot camp is a mandatory experience. To fight efficiently you have to be able to trust that those around you are going to do exactly what they've been trained to do. But what kind of training does a service member receive when they are injured in combat and unable to fight anymore, or when their tour of duty is up and they're released to civilian life?

For someone who has fought for their country and been witness to death, what support system exists to help them make the transition back to what we call normal life? How does the government help those with post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, or those with crippling disabilities, adapt to the daily grind?

Learning the Job

People enlist in the military for different reasons. Some do it out of a sense of patriotism or social responsibility. Others consider the armed forces a safety net. For Desiree Phillips, who spent eight years in the Army Reserves, it was discipline – and tuition.

“When I was young I wanted to be in the military. The discipline is what drew me in. I learned my senior year that I didn't have a college fund that I had been told I had. So, that sealed the deal. I joined for the college money.” Phillips enlisted at 17 through the Delayed Entry Program, known as DEP. As a reservist delayed entry meant that after joining the military Phillips engaged in weekend drills once a month before leaving for basic training.

Serving as a 52-C Utilities Equipment Repairer, Phillips was trained to perform heating and refrigeration repair. “To this day I wish I had someone who would have spoken up for me and placed me in a more suitable job.”

For Ken Esteves, rank withheld, a New Jersey native, the military was his safety net.

“I screwed around too much in high school so there wasn't much else to do.” Esteves enlisted at the age of 18 and has spent three years working at a training squadron for AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), and three years at NORAD. For him there is little overlap with the civilian sector.

Matt Merkey joined the Air Force for three reasons. Family tradition, a love of technology, and a lack of options.

“My dad was Air Force, so I followed the same path. Plus they tend to have all the coolest hardware. I was 20 at the time. Two years out of high school, no job prospects, so I took the military option. Actually turned 21 while in basic.”

Enlisting in the military can be an intimidating experience, and boot camp serves both to train and to separate the wheat from the chaff. For Merkey, the day started at 04:45.

“A typical day was PT, breakfast, showers, morning routine, lunch, afternoon routine, dinner, dorm work, bed. Morning routine was typically stuff that needed to be done at other parts of the base, mostly to avoid the afternoon heat. Afternoon was usually classroom stuff and drill practice. After dinner dorm stuff for me was laundry, which was by far the easiest of the different duties we had. Put loads in, stand around while loads finish. It was great.”

Boot camp serves to mentally prepare recruits for the stresses that lie ahead of them. It may seem silly to obsess over making a bed a certain way, or how to iron a uniform, but obedience in these simple tasks lay the foundation for obedience under fire. If a recruit can't or won't stand at attention as he or she has been trained to, the odds of their following orders under the stress of combat are poor. If a service member does not follow orders, they place both themselves and those around them in danger. Thus, boot camp stresses obedience, uniformity, and cohesiveness.

Tackling Health Issues

As of 2010 operations in Iraq claimed the lives of 4,404 service members and injured over thirty thousand more, and yet the statistics that are causing considerable worry both inside and outside the armed forces come from suicide rates. In a report by NPR, it was found that the number of suicides committed by active duty forces rivaled combat losses in Afghanistan. The gender disparity is even more shocking. Females on active duty are three times as likely to take their own lives. On average, 25 service members commit suicide every month.

Of the armed forces, it is the smallest branch, the Marines, that incur the highest proportion of attempted suicides. In 2009 there were 164 attempts at suicide, and 52 deaths. The first quarter of 2010 for the Marines saw 89 attempts and 21 deaths. The Army, more than twice the size of the Marine Corps., saw 163 deaths from suicide in the same year.

For those who are no longer in the military, the numbers are just as grim. Cut off from the family they have identified with for years, some service members feel abandoned and cast aside and do not seek out the support they need. A large number of veterans, the exact figure unknown due to the silence many victims suffer under, are afflicted with post traumatic stress disorder and other severe issues that go undiagnosed and untreated. Of the large number of veterans in this country, 21.9 million as of 2009, only a small portion, roughly one third, seek out support.

Veterans with PTSD may succumb to alcoholism or substance abuse. Some are homeless, others commit suicide. Even those treated for PTSD may relapse. An Army veteran recently released from a PTSD program committed suicide at a firing range after target shooting.


Life After the Military
Part 2, by Kevin Griffis

To be in the armed forces is to be a member of a massive family. So what happens when a family member gets hurt and isn't a part of the family anymore?

Finding Support

The United States Army is well aware of the issue with PTSD and has been putting programs into place to help treat the injured. 1St Lt. Maria-Cristina Puswald, a nurse in the Army, can be considered part of the front line of mental health treatment.

“If I think they have something psychological going on, I put in for a behavioral health consult and let the psychologist or psychiatrist take care of it. If they are on psych meds I of course administer them and assess the patient for improvement. The Army has a great program for taking care of patients with PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury), and other mental issues as well.”

After serving a tour of duty, service members are subjected to a Post Deployment Health Assessment, followed three to six months later by a Post Deployment Health Reassessment. According to the Army's behavioral health website, the “PDHRA extends the continuum of care for deployment related heath concerns and provides education, screening, assessment and access to care.”

PDHA and PDHRA are just two examples of a multi-pronged approach. For example, the Real Warriors Campaign seeks to help service members overcome the negative connotations of seeking psychological or psychiatric help, in the hopes that those who recognize they need assistance will more readily acquire help instead of suffering in silence.

Army One Source is a one-stop location for assistance with all problems that a service member or a service member's family may encounter. They provide a large support network that includes mental health programs, how to recognize signs of PTSD or other health issues, and offer assistance in dealing with these illnesses.

The United States Department of Veteran Affairs provides information to service members, family of those serving, and the general public on PTSD, homelessness, sexual trauma, substance abuse, and depression encountered by those serving. They also list tips for recognizing suicidal behavior and have a suicide hotline that can be called at any time.

A recent program started by the military takes a unique approach at dealing with service members suffering from PTSD and other traumas. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, located in Landstuhl, Germany and operated by the Army in conjunction with the Department of Defense, deviates from the twice a week therapy schedule. LRMC utilizes daily therapy sessions over an eight week period that focus on pain and grief management, dealing with substance abuse, art therapy, meditation, and even yoga to help service members regain normality.

Getting a Job

For many service members who have left the armed forces or those who washed out of boot camp, it isn't PTSD or mental health issues or substance abuse that concerns them. It's getting a job.
After receiving an honorable discharge, Phillips left the military with full certification for the heating and air conditioning industry that would have translated into a civilian sector career but, lacking the desire to work in the field, she pursued other options.

For Esteves, employment outside the military isn't in the cards.

“My career field has no civilian equivalent so everything I've learned and any skills I've developed are useless once I get out. But hey, they're paying for college.”
Merkey experienced a different problem. He suffered a knee injury during basic training that came back to haunt him during his Military Occupational Specialty training.

“Suffice to say it really hurt, and the Air Force wasn't willing to take it to surgery to fix it faster than physical therapy would. I was handed a medical separation after less than a year. It wasn't bad, but going anywhere or driving anything with a clutch hurt like hell.” Finding employment became difficult as he was required to list his discharge on job application forms for five years. A brief face to face meeting could easily explain the reason for the discharge, but interviews were rare.

After finding employment at the College of Central Florida, Merkey credited his work ethic to his time in the Air Force.

“I got a job and kept it because I put the work in that I hadn't in previous jobs outside the military. I wouldn't say it prepared me for anything, just gave me a different view.”

Lessons Learned

For Esteves, lessons learned from his time in the Air Force turned out to be a difficult question to answer.

“I've met and worked with people from all over the country as well as some foreigners. It's changed my opinion on the various other cultures within the United States, some for the better, some for the worse. For example before I left New Jersey I though Texas was just about the most insane place in America. Now I have full respect for Texans. Florida on the other hand...”

One thing Phillips has kept from her military experience was a strong belief that everyone should serve.

“I would not trade my experience in the military for anything. I believe very strongly that every American should serve one to two years in the military. I believe that people would have a better appreciation for our freedoms and sacrifices if they did, although many would disagree. Many would say that people in the military cannot think for themselves. What it taught me was that in order to accomplish a mission, soldiers needed to learn to set aside their personal beliefs in order carry out a common goal whether it is in war time or peace. This is an important lesson that anyone can carry with them.”


A look at the numbers - 2010
Military budget: $685.1 billion
Amount earmarked for VA: $70 billion
Active personnel: 1.44 million
Reserve personnel: 833,616
Veterans: 24+ million
Disabled veterans: 5.5+ million
U.S. population: 309 million
Suicide rates, Army and Marines: 20 per 100,000
Suicide rates, U.S. civilian population: 11.1 per 100,000