Veterans, Don't Drink the Kool-Aid

“Veterans, Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid”

As veterans, we should not reintegrate back into this “self-serving” society here in America today. We should refuse to be “normal”. The society we left to go into the military no longer exist. The Culture we left in America no longer exist. The moral belief system and respect for our common man no longer exist. Now many of you all may argue this as unhealthy. Some may say we as veterans are in denial. We can accept your view and we can have a healthy discussion about it. A good healthy debate is good for us, however; the opposing view will lose. Veterans experiences in war, military culture, identity crisis, lead us to be disconnected and withdrawn. If we accept we are different and that we are not going to change, we can be successful in society. The current American political climate and me generation means any solution to have us reintegrate will require a support system that our current society will not provide. What should be said is they are incapable of providing it. “Recommendations include the development of social support and transition groups; military cultural competency training for clinicians”- Anne Demers, San Jose State. So veterans, don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Be you.

When I returned from my fourth and last tour of Iraq, I re-entered the civilian workforce in a month. I returned home in October of 2011 and got hired in November 2011. I lost that job in November 2012 and was devastated. My employer said my actions at work were too strict when dealing with the client and my co-workers. I could not understand why my employer released me. As a corrections officer; part of the job is to follow and enforce the rules. I bounced back and forth between similar jobs and I realized I am not the same person who had left for Iraq in 2007. I remember my last corrections supervisor telling me I should be more flexible. What he meant was, don’t enforce the rules because it causes the shift to work. On my last corrections job, I sustained an injury during a cell extraction of a suicidal inmate. The Inmate is fine and uninjured, but I was fired by my employer because I had sustained injuries. The director of the facility released me and I automatically felt disconnected from my friends, my family, and from the Law Enforcement community. “These Adjustment issues may also be viewed within the context of assimilating back into the individualistic US Society, lacking the close Bonds and collectivist value system experienced in the military.”-Oxford Academic. I realized then, I was not going to readjust or reintegrate back into society. Veterans that work with me in my new job, have similar stories. I wholeheartedly believe Veterans should not try to return to “normal” society.

Fewer and fewer citizens are serving or have served in the military and even fewer have served during combat. “Today, the portion of Americans who served in the Global War on Terror, America’s longest war, mostly in Afghanistan and Iraq, is down to less than one percent.”-VOX. This is the lowest percentage of U.S. service members in American history. Most Veterans find themselves experiencing a different world than those around them, like myself. When people find out about my service in Iraq, they usually respond with “thank you for your service’ and ‘we support the troops.” Veterans appreciate the lip service. Veterans from the Vietnam era did not get this, at all. Do the people that tell us this, really mean it? From what myself and others have observed, most people don’t think a whole lot about the brave men and women who fought and died in these wars. What most of us see is people are more concerned about the divisive practices between the two major political parties. Members of the Hollywood elite and overpaid athletes disrespecting our national anthem, Kaepernick, and rioters burning American flags. This is not the America we left. Protesters at speaking events holding signs that read patriotism are racism. Protesters gathering because a Gay Jewish man wants to speak at an event-CNN. Violence at educational facilities of higher learning. News articles about Homeless Veterans dying from exposer- KLCC. Veterans killing themselves at a rate of twenty a day- Military Times. Some of us ask ourselves when did all this show up in out news. It didn’t. We just see it now because we see things different. Seeing things different makes it very hard for Veterans to have civilian friends. Fewer people are serving, but what frustrates me, is fewer people see the world like we see it.

When some Warfighters return home they feel it is impossible for their friends and loved ones to offer empathy, because of their experiences. Warfighters also return home without a mission. What a Veteran has to do is find a new mission, find something that they feel passionate about. I was reading an article on a Veterans