During their combatant life, veterans are sent on missions in war-torn areas to fight for their country or try to pacify warring groups. In the past, for instance, US veterans have stormed the desert sands of the Middle East, traversed the jungles of Vietnam and captured the beaches of Normandy in an attempt to enforce the American agenda in these regions. After such military operations are over, they have to return to their noncombatant life, a transition which is often not smooth particularly due to the sharp differences existing between these two lives. One of the main issues is that veterans are likely to find it difficult to relate with friends and family who are unaware of their military experiences or who may have started new routines during the veterans’ absence and, therefore, have to adapt to changes.
Additionally, a lack of training in certain vocational skills needed to secure formal employment makes it tough for veterans to get a good job outside the military. Similarly, most of the veterans come back home with several injuries suffered during their warfare missions. Some of these injuries are physical while others are psychological. If not accorded proper medical care, these injuries may deteriorate leaving irreparable health and mental damages. On that note, the following paragraphs comprehensively explore the injustices that veterans face after their term, with a specific interest in the troubles of returning to civilian life, job stability and the ensuing financial stresses as well as the struggle to access proper healthcare.
Military service is a demanding, perilous and difficult expedition, but so is the transition to normal life as stated above. Before exploring this topic in-depth, it would be prudent to get the actual experiences of transitioning to normal life, from a veteran. In this line, I interviewed Gerald McLeve, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, about the ordeals he has had to go through during his post-war life. The question was, “How has your adjustment to civilian life been so far?”. His response was, “It’s been hard imagine if you took a civilian and put them in Afghanistan, they would have a hard time transitioning. Most veterans basically go right into the military out of high school in a lot of cases, so we don’t really grow up on the civilian side. When we come back, it’s tough, you feel dejected, and you’re asking people for help but you’re not getting the help you need.”. McLeve went further on to explain how the readjustment really impacted him emotionally and how he felt as if he did not quite belong anywhere. It was a difficult transition for him and he was able to confirm that he was not the only veteran that had a challenging time connecting to civilians.
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As depicted in the interview extract above, the lack of people to share their burden with is one of the challenges that veterans such as McLeve face when adjusting to noncombatant life Veterans usually get frustrated when they call out for help but no one comes to their aid. Despite the dangerous life that veterans lead during their term, the military environment is typified by a family culture where they take care of one another. However, compared to the military life, “normal is alien” to the veterans which can be summarized by four themes namely: “a) disconnection, b) unsupportive institutions, c) Lack of civilian structure and d) loss of purpose.” (Ahern 5). Civilian life becomes unfamiliar to veterans due to a mismatch between the hopes that their homecoming would be a cordial return to normalcy and the reality that what was initially normal to them. Before joining the military now feels abnormal due to the changes that occur in them while in service and those that occur at home.
Veterans feel disconnected from their friends and family upon retiring from duty. This disconnection boils down to the fact that people who have not taken part in any military excursion cannot truly comprehend the experiences that these veterans have gone through (Ahern 5). Similarly, veterans expect their heroism during warfare to be honored. However, contrary to this expectation, institutions such as the Department for Veteran Affairs do not support their readjustment to civilian life. Consequently, these veterans feel alienated. Other than the unsupportive institutions and a disconnect with family and friends, the transformation from a highly organized military setting to less structured public surroundings brings about complications in coordinating their lives and relating with persons at home. This issue arises since, at the military camps and barracks, veterans are used to taking instructions from their seniors but suddenly have to start making their own decisions after returning home. As a result, they inevitably get frustrated when their mates and family members do not respect authority or fail to observe punctuality (Ahern 6).
Equally, a lack of education beyond high school level also makes it challenging for the veterans to readapt to normalcy. Those who graduate from college have an easier time switching back to civilian life as compared to high school graduates. In support of this claim, the Pew Research Center studied the reasons why some veterans face more problems in acclimatizing to life after military service whose results indicated that “….veterans who were commissioned officers and those who had graduated from college are more likely to have an easy time readjusting to their post-military life than enlisted personnel and those who are high school graduates.” (Morin 2). The high school graduates are, therefore, likely to feel that their post-war life lacks purpose and meaning since they cannot contribute to an essential communal work (Ahern 6).
Securing a decent or stable job is not an easy process for veterans. I interviewed another veteran, Nick Colgin, to get his experiences in the civilian job market. Colgin highlights how it was hard for him to get employed in the civilian world as a medic despite having learned some valuable medical skills while in service. I asked, “Nick, when you returned from war and went to look for a job, you walked in the door, and you told them “I’m a really good at medic”, what happened?”. Nick replied with, “I went out into the job market, and I’m trying to tell them, hey, I’m an emergency medic and truly good at it. I’m the tip of the spear at medical care. And they didn’t recognize that because I lacked the certificates. I could be a medic in the Armed forces, but when I get out, it doesn’t count.” He explained that a lot of companies don’t understand what it means to be a physician in a foreign country or be a truck driver overseas. They don’t appreciate the experiences that come along with that.They just do not see the certifications and that is all that matters to them.
From this interview, it is clear that when hiring personnel, corporates do not recognize the specific skills that veterans possess. Colgin states that he was an emergency medic during his time in military service. He even recalls an instance when he assisted in saving 42 Afghanis trapped in a flooded river as well as an american soldier who had been shot in his head. However, trying to convince potential employers to consider hiring him was a futile endeavor since Colgin lacked the necessary certification. To further elaborate the basis of such difficulties in finding a stable job, Zogas (1) argues that young veterans believe that the military plays an important role in teaching them how to work within the precincts of the defense forces but fail to prepare them for civilian life, something that would be achieved by reversing their training. Furthermore, work in the military environment is quite different from that in the civilian job market. This argument can be supported by the statement that, “…interviews with case managers showed that veterans have unrealistic expectations of how their skills will transfer to the civilian job market.” (Zogas 5). This demonstrates that many soldiers may have a great job and a high rank in the military but when they get back into civilian life, they could still be unemployed or scrambling for a job.
Unsurprisingly, due to the possibility of formal unemployment during the post-service life, veterans develop a mentality that the outside world has little to offer them. “One of the things that gets drilled into you is, don’t leave the Army because there’s nothing out there for you…….You’re not going to get a job. You’ll be back in here in no time, crying for your job back again.” (Binks & Siobhan 133). This statement underscores some form of segregation that veterans undergo while in service. The purpose of this segregation is to make the combatants become indifferent about civilian life and never desire to leave the military camp. Arguably, this segregation is the reason why veterans become discouraged by having to begin with a less-rewarding position. The refusal by employers to hire them, poor remuneration and the ensuing financial stresses make veterans to feel as if they are starting their lives all over again.
It is sad to note that more than 1 million veterans in the United States have no medical cover and cannot access veterans’ hospitals (Reinberg & Healthday par. 4). The Federal government has been sending soldiers on overseas missions but fail to accord them proper medical care once they return home. To further illuminate the healthcare problems that veterans have to deal with, I interviewed veteran Jeffrey Barnett as my third and final interviewee for this analysis. When asked “What would you say about the quality of healthcare services provided by the Veterans Health Administration Service (VHAS)?” Barnett responded with, “I think the VHAS still falls short of fulfilling the mental healthcare needs of every veteran. The problem is that you may have to wait for weeks to see the physician after booking an appointment. My senior is always grumbling about the VHAS, how they misdiagnose someone and treat patients like a tennis ball, “Go to this office” , “Go to that office.” Jeffrey is speaking on the many challenges that veterans face just to receive healthcare, that they should be guaranteed.
This veteran acknowledges the inadequacy of the (VHAS) in providing quality mental healthcare to all veterans. Some veterans are completely isolated from this service. Similarly, some of them who get medical care through this service end up committing suicide due to a lack of proper behavioral healthcare. Hester (1) also recognizes this veterans’ healthcare disaster by arguing that despite the perilous conditions that combatants experience during their missions, their efforts to access the right mental healthcare often have to deal with numerous impediments. As the Department of Veteran Affairs struggles to address this crisis, the continued lack of access to proper psychological healthcare leads to an increase in suicidal tendencies, mainly among young veterans. This critical situation can be summed up by the following remarks; “The rate of suicidal deaths is considerably high in the veteran populations. For example, the rate of suicide among women veterans is 35 per 100000, a rate that is much higher than their civilian counterparts.” (Hester 2).
Many of veterans problems can be traced from one singular cause which is based around the experiences that veterans endured during their service. From mental trauma to physical disabilities that were received during their service, veterans can be significantly hindered in their journey towards a normal civilian life. Many veterans such as Jeffrey Barnett, stated to me that he has major issues sleeping at night due to night terrors from the trauma he witnessed while deployed in the middle east. His sleep deprivation has forced him to resort to drinking and eating things that act as stimulants in his body. He told me he drinks 2-3 energy drinks a day as well as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. When I asked him if he has been seen for his night terrors he claims that the appointments for mental health are backed up 6 months and he has not been able to see anybody for his problems
Veterans have no confidence in the VA healthcare system, especially with regards to the provision of follow-up treatment and the availability of timely visits. In a study of the veteran-centered impediments to the VA healthcare services, one of the veterans who participated states, “When you say a problem with the system – you don’t know where the system starts and ends at the VA just seems like they’re always short-staffed. I know because my unit is always short-staffed.” (Cheney 8). The above assertion indicates some of the issues that veterans believe to be the chief obstacles preventing them from accessing the right medical care. They include staffing issues, appointment delays, slow clinic response and a lack of access to individualized treatment (Cheney 10). Therefore, until these problems are resolved, veterans will continue to suffer from health and mental consequences of a poor healthcare system.
The above analysis has shed light on the social injustices that veterans face with specific regards to the troubles of re-adjusting back to civilian life, job stability and the ensuing financial stresses and the struggle to access proper healthcare. Veterans struggle with transitioning to a rather unfamiliar post-service life due to a mismatch between the hopes that their homecoming would be a cordial return to normalcy and the reality that what was initially normal before joining the military now feels unusual. Besides, securing a stable job is not easy for the veterans because of the tendency of employers to overlook their credentials despite having acquired specific skills while in service. Finally, staffing issues, appointment delays, slow clinic response and a lack of medical insurance and access to specialized treatment are some of the main issues that veterans struggle with to get healthcare services. As a parting shot, understanding these social injustices is the precursor to devising mechanisms to remedy each of the three main concerns discussed above to enhance a smooth transition back to normalcy for the veterans. It will enable policymakers to determine the problems’ root causes, identify possible alternatives to solve these problems and implement the most appropriate solutions.
