Battle Scars Warfare of the Mind Joshua Webster English 1102

Introduction For almost every college student, an 8 am class is killer and usually a last resort for every student. Everyone always complains that The class is too early or My brain cant function this early or This class is automatically making me sleepy because of how early it is. I know that a lot of women complain about having to get up at around 6:30 to fix their hair and makeup for class, and to most people 6:30 is way too early, but for us Army ROTC cadets, our day has already startedover an hour ago. For three days a week, and for some its five days, we get up around 5 am and come to campus for PT at 5:30 until around 7, way earlier than most college students get up. Not only do we ROTC cadets have to get up that early during the week, but we also have an 8 hour class on one Saturday a month. If that sounds crazy just wait, it gets worse. Every semester we also have a three day Field Training Exercise (FTX) that is all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and on some lucky occasions, being very sarcastic, we get to leave early on Thursday afternoon to get to our training base in South Carolina. With all of this extracurricular activity that we cadets do on a regular basis, its hard to understand why anyone would willingly do this. Typical college students dont do these kinds of things. No normal college student gets up at 5 am to go workout, no regular college student has a class on Saturday, and no normal college student has a required class that makes them give up an entire weekend willingly; most people call us cadets crazy. When I first thought about how I could bring civilians into world of a soldier, I really struggled with it. Its a hard subject to talk about and share with others, especially when they havent gone through some of the same things I have. Its hard to relate it to people when they dont get up at 5 am to go run 4 miles before the sun ever comes up, its hard to tell people about getting 12 hours of sleep in 4 days and running around the entire time. So how could I possibly
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explain to the reader the mindset, the physical attributes and the terminology that we soldiers use in our life on a day to day basis? When someone thinks of war their mind goes rampid with many different ideas. People automatically think of a faraway land full of fighting, destruction, good vs. evil, hero vs. villain, and mostly death. But what most people dont think of is all of the emotional and mental scars that are left behind, the unseen scars. Most soldiers that come back from war, especially those in combat professions; have some mental issues when coming back into the real world. Just imagine living in a combat zone for 6, 12, or 18 months straight. You are always in high alert and ready at a moments notice. And for what? To fight not just for your life, but for the life of your fellow soldier standing next you every single day. Every day that a soldier is in a combat zone, any second could be their last, and they all know it. With bombings and explosions happening in this new war with cell phones and Internet (Kaldor 1), it is no wonder why many soldiers are scared most of the time. Its hard for most soldiers to turn it off when they get back to the states because they have lived that way for so long that it is almost a part of them. Many people dont think of these scars, because they are not easily seen or understood for that matter. Each case is different for every soldier. Some cant sleep at night because they have reoccurring dreams/flash backs. Others have problems talking to normal people because they still think and talk like they are in a combat zone. While others have problems being out in public because sounds and objects set off triggers in their minds that make them freak out and think back to the war. As a cadet in the Army ROTC program here at UNC Charlotte, I know of all the risks and dangers that I will be put into after I graduate. Myself and other cadets watch the new regularly and is usually on the TV in the cadet lounge. We all see the death counts and the
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bombing and this and that posted all over the news and the internet. It seems to me that the only thing the news puts up about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are the bad things, nothing is ever good. As young cadets we are told to think positive and to not to show our fears and not to show that we are scared, but its hard when the only thing you every hear about is the shootings, the bombings, and the deaths. Its almost a daily occurrence when we finish each others sentences about something we saw on the news pertaining to the war. With the easy access to social media and the news, horrors of military service are easy to come by now more than ever. This paper considers the impact of negative media coverage of the military and the physical evidence from active duty soldiers. My hope throughout this paper is to open up a conversation between civilians and military so there can be a better understanding of the risks involved in military service. Literature Review: Unseen Scars

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Between 20 March 2003, when the US military began its invasion of Iraq, and 30 September 2006, a total of 2,706 deaths occurred to US troops in Iraq (Buzzell 555). In just 3 short years almost 3,000 US troops died in Iraq alone, whether it be combat related or not. When anyone in the military looks at that number it scares them, me included. But according to the conventional denominator for a death rate, it consists of an estimated number of persons living during that period divided by the deaths during that period. So the 673,00 odd number soldiers that were stationed in Iraq at the time, divided by the 2,706 that were killed, that gives us a 4.02 deaths per 1,000. When compared to the ratio of how many people died in the US during the same time frame, that ratio is 8.42 per 1,000 people (Buzzell 556), which is higher than the troops in the combat zone. This makes it look like the combat zone was actually safer than living in the US during the time, but we all know that this is false. Since I am a cadet, when I graduate college I will be a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army. Another scary statistic for us cadets is the officer death ratio in Iraq, which is just at 18% higher than any other rank in the Army (Buzzell 559). This is something that is always in the back of all our minds at all times. Many US soldiers who return home from Iraq have or will develop crippling psychological problems-by one estimate, fully 40 percent of combat veterans (Gutmann 12). This is a very high number that is 2 out of every 5 soldiers. The most common diagnoses is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As stated by the American Psychiatric Association is having involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (Gutmann 12). Soldiers get this by being in a war zone and seeing horrific things that get imbedded in their minds and are hard to ignore. The military has given PTSD many different nicknames to make it not sound as bad as it really is and sometimes just cover it up because if a soldier displays symptoms of PTSD, they can be sent home and even discharged from the
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military in extreme cases. Officers have often refused the diagnosis claiming it is an excuse for malingering (Gutmann 12). I know that one of the reasons that officers will refuse that they have PTSD is because it makes them look weak in front of their soldiers. As an officer, you are the leader of your platoon, group of soldiers around 50 or so, and if they hear that you have PTSD or anything along those lines, they wouldnt think you were a good leader because you dont have the mental capacity stay focused and that any decision you made afterward would be put into question because they dont know if you are thinking clearly or just panicking. Many veterans that return home with PTSD do not take treatment because of the so called stigma attached to it and others accept that they have it but still dont do much to improve themselves because they dont like the way the VA (Veterans Administration) understands their diagnosis (Gutmann 13). It takes months and even years to fully recover from PTSD, and even then some soldiers dont fully recover, but simply learn to deal with it. At the end of March, 4 US contractors were killed in Fallujah, and their burned and dismembered corpses were dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge (Cobb 831). This image is one that haunted the dreams of lots of men and women who saw it and burned this image into their brains forever. In 2003 a Navy medic names Charlie Anderson was deployed to Iraq. He recalls of a patrol he went out on where After rounding a corner, the crowd seemed to thin. Then all hell broke loose and Marines began shooting in all directions. Were trying to figure out what one guy is firing at, and he yells Dont ask me what Im shooting. Im shooting at fucking people! Anderson pulled the trigger on his gun until someone said he could stop. (Gutmann 14). Over 5 years later in an interview, the writer said that Charlie Anderson still looked shell-shocked in recounting those operations around Sadr City. (Gutmann 14). Anderson also stated about his counseling after returning
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home I did go through one support group meeting at the VA, and I didnt find any support. As I had stated before, some people do get to leave the military because of PTSD and after returning to the US, Anderson was given an honorable discharge after being diagnosed. As one soldier, Garett Reppenhagen, put it if men did the same things in the streets of the United States they did with no repercussions in the cities and villages in Iraq, the would be imprisoned or even executed. But since they are not punished by others, they punish themselves. They start drinking themselves to death and doing drugs and being abusive to their families-and committing suicide, because they cant find redemption. (Gutmann 17). Reppenhagen also goes on to say Men experience trauma, he knows, when their buddy is blown up in front of them, when someone is shot and no one can get to him. Or When innocent people get waxed(killed). These are the main causes of PTSD, seeing the men and women that you fought so hard with and lived with and trained with for so long pass right in front of your eyes, knowing that maybe you could have done something different to help save them, even though there probably wasnt anything you could have done in the first place, it haunts you inside. Most people would think that not many women would have PTSD or any other sorts of medical problems when coming back from wars because they are not allowed to be in combat ready teams, like Infantry. But many women are sent to the front lines of battle because of their respected jobs, most being medics or translators. the immediate issues are much more practical ones about inadequate prior training and insufficient aftercare from a VA caught off guard by the appearance of an unexpected species of claimant. (Carruthers 26). This makes many women uneasy because they dont get the proper training to be in combat because they arent aloud to have combat ready jobs. Many women dont want to join the military because
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of the fear of not getting the training they need to survive and also getting more negative feedback about injuries more than men. We have all heard the war in Iraq being called the War for Oil. Michael Schwartz, a known protester on the war in Iraq, has talked about the topics of the war being oil, shock and awe, neoliberalism, the insurgency, Habitha, collateral damage, Fallujah, American military patrols (death patrols), Ramadi, Iraqi reconstruction (deconstruction), water (Ender 400) just to name a few. For false reasons that he has said, many people that have thought about joining the military have stopped because they dont believe that they would be fighting for the right reasons and dont want to be looked down upon and be called baby killers or oil soldiers.

Entering the Conversation: The Army in Me Even though this is just my third year directly interacting with the Army, I have been a part of the Army in a more non direct way for my entire life. My dad was in the Army for 22 years and retired back in 2003 as a Major, so I have been influenced my entire life to live the Army values and to do what was right because that is what my dad taught me. In my dads 22 years of service, he was only deployed two times, the longest being 24 months in Kuwait in the early 1990s. My dad was gone a lot when I was younger because of his job; he was usually gone for about two weeks at a time and would be home for two to three weeks then leave again. One of the advantages, that I liked, was moving. By the time I was 13 I had been to 46 states and Canada, something I can say that most adults cant say. The people you meet and the places you go are some of the best memories I have with my dad.

As one of my articles states Military service also has important effects on family formation, including the timing of marriage and parenthood, family structure, and the influence of military culture on families. (Kelty 181). I dont believe that his affected my family as much because my dad was there but one of the positive beliefs that I see that my dad bestowed on me and my sister are the military values. He passed these on to me and my sister and I feel that that made who we are today. My dad was fortunate enough to never be hit by any car bombs or bullets while he was deployed. I do believe that my dad might have had a small case of PTSD because he doesnt talk about his deployments, not even to my mom, which is one of the signs of PTSD. Ive asked my dad about things when he was deployed and he would just tell me that it doesnt matter now that he is home and that its all in the past. I honestly think that it takes a strong man to say the things that he has told me. Along with my dad being deployed the cadre here at the ROTC program has all been deployed and so have some of the cadets who are prior service. All of them will talk to us about being deployed but usually dont give the details about missions and such because some guys have lost buddies. One person has admitted to having PTSD and having to go to counseling about it but says that he is all better. Most civilians have halted their desires to join the military because of fears of having PTSD when they return or dying while in service. With the one person I talked about earlier having PTSD, that didnt stop him from being in the program and furthering his military career. He was able to overcome PTSD and live a normal life just like anyone else who doesnt have military service. It takes a real man to admit to having a problem, and I believe that is one step to improving the outlook on beating PTSD.
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Conclusion: Post-traumatic stress disorder is a big issue surrounding the military community as a whole and making it harder for the military to grow in numbers. With newer technology coming out almost daily, it can be used to somehow treat PTSD better and maybe even faster, all the while hopefully making it less of a factor for up and coming privates and the general public who are uneasy about the way. The Vietnam Way was perceived negatively because of the mass media coverage of the war and only showing the bad things, like death counts. The public may be more willing to view American casualties as acceptable if they are compared to (reasonably) large numbers of enemy death. (Cobb 833). Unfortunately this statement is true. Many Americans today feel like if there is a higher amount of the enemy killed compared to the US, that its ok that those few good men and women died, but in reality its not. One death is one too many. Seeing that so many American soldiers died this day doing this thing doesnt make the death of those soldiers any better, because they are gone. And with the availability of the internet, its easy to for anyone to get online and search to find anything about the Iraq war or Afghanistan war and 9 out of 10 times, the news that they read is going to be bad. Its going to say so many soldiers died today or so many innocent Iraqis died today or some new statistic about post war hard ships for veterans and everything else in between. The real problem with this war is not the war that we see on TV or the internet or the newspapers that is happening on the other side of the world, but the problems that follow the troops home. Just because a soldier has some kind of mental problems when returning, whether it be PTSD or something else, doesnt make that person any less of a good soldier just because of a struggle they are having now. PTSD is acceptable and shouldnt be looked down upon as some kind of weakness. The unseen scars are the ones that hurt the worst.

Works Cited
Kelty, R.; Kleykamp, M.; Segal, D. (2010). The Military and the Transition to Adulthood. The Future of Children, No.1(Vol. 20), 181-207.

Buzzell, E.; Preston, S. (2007). Mortality of American Troops in the Iraq War. Population and Development Review, No. 3(Vol. 33), 555-566.

Ender, M. (2010). War: Causes and Consequences. Contemporary Sociology, No. 4(Vol. 39), 399-402.

Gutmann, M.; Lutz, C. (2009). Becoming Monsters in Iraq. Anthropology Now, No. 1(Vol. 1), 12-20.

Carruthers, S. (2008). Bodies of Evidence: New Documentaries on Iraq War Veterans. Cineaste, No. 1(Vol. 34), 26-31.

Boettcher III, W., & Cobb, M. (2006). Echoes of Vietnam? Casualty Framing and Public Perceptions of Success and Failure in Iraq. The Journal of Conflict Resolution, No. 6(Vol. 50), 831-854.

Kaldor, M. (2006). The "New War" in Iraq. Thoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, No. 109, 1-27.

Dekel, R., Goldblatt, H., Keidar, M., Soloman, Z., & Polliack, M. (2005). Being a wife of a veteran with ptsd. Family Relations, No. 1(Vol. 54), 24-36.

Webster, J. (2013). Cadet Lounge Observation. Personal Interview with CDT D. Walker, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Webster, J. (2013). Cadet Lounge Observation. Personal Interview with CDT T. Johnson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina.

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