Retained Personnel

Soldiers train rigorously, preparing for the departure of war. They sacrifice all that they have to fight for their country. As they return after the war, they are left with painful experiences and traumatizing memories, suffering from their inevitable conditions. However, the spouse, families, and children back at home are suffering even more than soldiers. The war is something no one wants to go through. Soldiers train to fight for their country and for their very lives. In doing so,…

Veterans are heroes in the eyes of many citizens of the United States. There are over twenty million veterans who have risked their lives to help give this nation a fear free life. They serve and protect the land for their children, spouses, parents, family, and neighbors. Yet they are not treated with the love and respect they truly deserve. Those who have served took a devastating loss when the, “House Appropriations Subcommittee marked up the 2016 Veterans Affairs funding bill, and slashed…

Though it has only been but a month since I’ve arrived here, it feels to me as if I have been away for years. I do hope that you are well. Your wellbeing is likely the only thing in the world keeping me going. Be sure to tell the kids Ruben and TIm that I am getting along fine. In a serious sense, not to be seen as much of a downer, but in truth, war has shown to be a lot more than mere heroism and glory. The attacks are vicious. Though I'm in a trench and not stuck out in no-man’s land, the…

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Affects and Problems Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a thing to be reckoned with. However, an overwhelming amount of active duty soldiers and veterans go through their life without ever finding the light at the end of the tunnel to this mental illness. A large portion of Americans fail to see the full effects war can put on a human being, and the majority of what they see is from movies. Much like in the movie American Sniper, P.T.S.D. takes a toll on…

A soldier who goes into war will never come out being the same man. The psychological stress of war makes every soldier lose their mind, in both clinical and/or abstract terms. The clinical definition of insanity is “a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder” (Merriam-Webster). The abstract definition is “to deal with heightened stress in un-methodistic ways”. In The Things They Carried, by writer and Vietnam war veteran, Tim O’Brien, every character deals…

disease that affects individuals who have been exposed to different types of trauma, and more specifically, soldiers and veterans who have been exposed to war. According to the Wounded Warrior Project, “as of September 1, 2015, 400,000 military personnel are dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder, and unfortunately, more women will be exposed than men”, (woundedwarriorproject.org). Many of today’s veterans and current soldiers experience the disorder. “ About 52% of American soldiers from…

has experienced 'disturbances ' for more than one month." This shows that not everyone with these symptoms has PTSD. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder affects mainly three groups of people; military personnel, police officers, and crime victims. The first group of PTSD sufferers is military personnel.…

How much would you be willing to sacrifice for your country? Most of us would say, we would sacrifice everything for this country, while some of us wouldn’t sacrifice anything for it. However, this is all just banter compared to what our military personnel do on a daily basis while they are overseas. They are constantly giving their lives away to protect our rights and freedoms. One man in particular has made waves in the news medias in the past few years because he tells us about his…

Soldiers undergo traumatic events while in combat. Some survive harrowing experiences; other men die. When soldiers go back home to their loved ones, it is hard to look past what happened to their comrades while they were in combat. For the soldiers who survives, everyday life is a tossup between feeling genuinely happy and feeling guilty for surviving. Even the toughest of soldiers may suffer from survivor’s guilt---a psychological syndrome that makes someone believe they have done wrong by…

Invisible wounds, as Bica states, have been called “soldier's heart” or “battle fatigue,” and “combat exhaustion” but now, the invisible wounds that soldiers suffer from are referred to as PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “People who are psychologically, emotionally, or morally wounded as a result of their combat experience” Bica states, suffer from invisible wounds. He goes on to elaborate on what PTSD entails, and describes it as “an anxiety disorder that can develop after an exposure…