Until the wives and Soldiers start complaining.
why not end the deep state wars ?
“decompress” — I suspect that is a word I am going to start to loathe as much as “baby bump,” reaching out,” “the masses(stupid communist word!,) “dident, couldent, wouldent, shouldent (didn’t, couldn’t, etc.), “them” when they mean he or she, and “no worries.”
I think I hate above all in this horrible this modern age, aside from all the immoralities, violence, and political correctness, what is happening to our language.
Because when your deployment is up you don't want to sit around talking about your "feelings" with a bunch of coneheads in ANY setting - you WANT TO GO HOME to be with wife and kids.
If there's to be some time to do this sort of thing, let it be after homecoming.
"give our troops 30 days before they return home" - they sound so benevolent.
The morons who come up with this stuff have obviously never served.
It used to be the trip home with your unit was your time to readjust to not being in combat. You had people around you that you knew and who had gone through it with you if you wanted to talk.
When did we start bring back people one at a time rather then as a unit?
Not sure what the answer is but there is room for improvement.
When our 2 of our 3 were in Iraq, they spent about 7-10 days in Kuwait on their way out, then couldn’t take leave for another 5 or 6 days, after returning to CA. It was long enough for them to adjust to sleeping without their weapons, at least.
Men alone should be fighting. Preferably single men. Then let them run loose in an area of ill repute. Just like it was during WW2. You know....when we WON wars.
When my son was with the 82nd ABN (MOS 18B = hunt, kill, eat, sleep, poop, repeat) they brought them inside the wire to Kandahar or such to cool off for 30 days prior to returning to the US. So where they are getting this 24 hour business I don’t know.
He is still in, but is now with the 1st SF Group.
In my observations it was the men that had set goals for when they came back that did well. They were also the ones that either were, or became, team leaders, etc. It was the ones that came back without goals and just hung around the barracks, went out drinking, etc that did not do well.
In the recent past, we had more people involved, slower methods of transporting folks to the war and back, and in many cases, they rotated home with their units. A greater percentage of the populace was involved too, so there was a sense of sharing of the load.
Most of that is gone: we have a very small portion of the people taking on the burden and they come to a world that barely knows that they exist, much less what combat means to them and their lives.
Combat is about killing people and seeing other people killed. Combat is about pervasive, consuming fear - the constant knowledge that your next moment might be your last. After combat is about the guilt that you are leaving your friends behind, the deeply imprinted memories, the nightmares that last for months, maybe years, and the sorrow that you made it when really good people didn't.
My generation had the benefit that it took a week or two to get home. We didn't have much "counseling" other than an experienced Staff NCO telling us to not tell anybody anything when we got back - that they wouldn't understand anything anyway.
I completely understand suicide; I came close enough myself a couple of times.
We get our best young people and plunge them into an environment that is unnatural and often horrific and will change them forever, then we expect them to put all those memories away and lock them up, out of sight. Didn't work for the men of WW II, didn't work for the guys returning from Korea and Vietnam - why should we expect leaving them to their own devices now would work this time?
I believe part of it, not even necessarily a big part - but part, is the move out of a structured environment into one without structure that is causing some of the issues.
I’ve seen the same thing with a lot of retirees 1-2 years after leaving the workforce. They don’t know what to do with themselves and become despondent.
My own dad, disabled from MS and a heart attack, struggled for some time until he was able to establish a routine. Even now it gnaws on him not to have something to do that he thinks is worthwhile.