I’ve been thinking a lot about the military experience lately. I was introduced to a couple of websites, veteran writing, and I keep thinking about how the return home really affects our military servicemembers.
I wrote a piece in 2017 about Sam returning home. I genuinely believe he is still returning home.
Sure, he’s retired from the military, but he continues to work in an environment where he is around veterans who are in the same boat so to speak–they are still processing a lot of trauma, injuries, and memories of their time in the service. They are still returning home.
Here’s a segment from my original post “He’s Not Deployed, He’s Returning Home”
Some soldiers, much like my husband, are in the reintegration phase. Now, this phase is key because many of our Veterans are struggling with this very concept and they’ve “been home” for quite some time. When one transitions from military culture to civilian culture, it can be a challenge. There might be training, counseling, medical appointments, stress, sleepless nights, the list could go on–and for some, this transition is not as difficult for some of the Veterans in society today. It might be hard for some Veterans to find work, it may be a struggle for some Veterans to leave their home. We must not ever assume that these Veterans will “just get over it,” because this is such a challenge, such a difficult transition for some who have served. Many support services are out there, ready to help Veterans, and families, it is just a matter of letting them know about the services they need to make the readjustment easier.
We still have to work (we being society) to make the readjustment phase a little easier. The transition to home is not a quick, overnight process. It takes time. Healing from the injuries of war, visible and invisible, well, it takes time. We can’t expect our veterans to return to their life prior to service and act as if nothing has changed, nothing is different.
Take a moment to think about the changes, the challenges, and the ups and downs of a military experience and please read through this piece.