Does Anyone Else Have Recurring Dreams About Being Back In the Military?

I served for seven years back in the 1990s. I've been out for over twenty years now, but every few months I'll have some dream where it turns out I was discharged too early and so now I'm back in the army to serve out the last six months. As with all my dreams, it's all very fluid and disjointed. Usually, I've just arrived at a reception center, presumably at Ft. Hood, although it's not the one I actually went through there. From there, I'm sent back to my old unit and people I used to know are still there. I don't have any of my TA-50 and I'm frantic because I know that my return has all the leadership thinking "WTF are you doing back here? Jesus! You cant even ETS without fucking up!" My guts are in knots because I know "HE" will be there soon.

"He" was my squad leader for the last year I was in. He was a former drill sergeant and a sadist. When I was assigned to my last unit I had two years left to serve. A year later I was put in his squad. It wasn't long before he told me he had been watching me for the last year and didn't like the way I carried myself. He regarded me as a lost cause, useful only to serve as an example. He rode me for the entire year, every day. At one point, a couple of months later, after I incurred his wrath over something, he dismissed everybody else, took me aside came up to me and hissed right in my face "You know something? I believe I'm gonna have to crush you!"

It was not an idle threat. Over the next 8-9 months he made good on it.

He never actually shows up in the dreams. He remains always an impending doom that never materializes. I'll wake up gasping, sweating — I'm not sure if I've ever yelled out from it — and with the most tremendous relief, but I remain rattled for days afterward.

yes I always have dreams about militiary and seam real except I got out 20 years ago i learned how 5o block them and my counselor said that's not good but i never complete my mission i can never relax and teak a break

I did just six years, just part-time in the National Guard 30 years ago. Never deployed, was never mobilized, and never spent any active duty time outside of initial entry training. STILL dream about being in the Army at least once a month. Two thoughts in terms of reason: #1 Basic training and AIT were extremely formative times for me. I changed more, faster there (for the better) than at any other time in my life prior or since. #2 I have some regret about getting out; my mind is not going to let that go easily.

I dream I’m back in often , I’m at drill and I keep telling them I’m not supposed to be in anymore but they always say I signed back up or I have drills left . A lot of the dreams I have is we are spinning up to go back over seas or we are back in Iraq . Ive dreamed I went back to boot camp and couldn’t keep up . It’s all the time with these dreams .

I have them and I hate them. They usually involved being back in the barracks and I’m private snuffy who for some reason cannot keep up with his equipment. Other times I can’t find my unit formation for the division run. There’s been times I’m in the field and have a run away vehicle. All sorts of crazy stuff. Thing is I was a squared away soldier when I was in until I got sick and got a medical separation. Do the dreams ever end?

I just woke up from a nightmare!! I was in the Airforce for 6 years, went in during Kosovo and got out 3 years after the towers went down. In my dream I was in civilian clothes back in Germany I can’t find my uniforms and I miss my wife and kids so bad. I am 100 lbs overweight trying to fit in and all I wanna do is come home...

I have similar dreams but I’m almost always in combat and jumping in. Always feeling inadequate due to my disabilities. Feeling like a phony, like I’ll be discovered because I can longer keep up. It takes a little bit after waking to tell myself I’m no longer in the military and then it’s comforting.

I can relate. I keep having convoluted dreams where I'm still in the military. I served 12 years and exited in 1996! So can't figure out why I keep having these dreams. Last night was the most recent, which drove me to Google the meaning of these dreams, which ultimately led me to this join this forum.
My dream last night involved being in a convoy enrout to field training, but this convoy was also a funeral procession enrout to our first stop - a funeral. Seated in the military hummer which I riding, were also a few of my siblings, similar to the way we road in the family funeral car when our mom died a few years ago. Except this time we were in a military vehicl. WTF!

This only one version of my dreams involving military experience. The majority of the time, they Seem to involve some form of travel enrout out to the field for training maneuvers.

I constantly have dreams about being back in the Navy. Most recently I was back aboard an aircraft carrier, meeting with my troops and checking out the spaces of our division. Then I realized I didn't have any uniforms with me other than the khakis I was wearing. I was planning to go buy new uniforms at the ships store but needed to get set up with a rack assignment first. These dreams always seem so real and clear. Always something about my uniforms as well. I've been retired for 25 years now after 22 yrs of service and I still have these dreams quite frequently.

3 yrs 9 mos 22 days in the sandbox. Got out in 2012 after 11.5 yrs to the day. Have dreams of being back in Germany or Korea. Usually I can't find my hat or top(blouse hate that term). Sometimes, I'm back at like basic and I know I have my id card and they are trying to get me back in the service...but it's not really basic, it's like a conglomeration of all the places I've been. I have dreams of being bombarded by footballs, again at a place that's a conglomeration of all the places I've been. It's weird to wake up and look for a hat, or id card, or your blouse, or hit the deck and be crying because your brother or sister just died right next to you. My dreams are never of me back in Iraq or Afghanistan, always a green place and always overseas. It really hurts my soul to wake up to that. Any thoughts?

I just had another recurring dream that I rejoined the military. I’m not retired, but I left after I married and my spouse wanted out because we had children. It was leave the military or divorce. I followed my spouse and kept our family together and today we are almost at 20 years of marriage. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like had I stayed. I really loved the service and I had incredible potential, but at the same time I’ve had an extraordinary and blessed life so really can’t complain.

I spent eight years in the U.S. Coast Guard. It was a rough couple of tours mostly aboard ships up in Alaska but I never disliked my time in the Coast Guard. I have been out since 1988.

For the last ten years or so i have had a recurring dream where I am rejoining the Coast Guard or some type of naval service involving ships. I arrive at my ship and go aboard but there is never a place for me to stay. They can't find a rack or a locker for me to put my gear into so I just have to walk around with no permanent place to live. It is a very disheartening dream.

I asked my brother, who was in the Air Force for several years, if he experienced these types of dreams and he said he too had a similar dream on occasion.

I suppose my dream comes from being a part of something which over time became very ingrained into my being. You might forget about all those experiences during the day but at night your mind goes back to what it knows best when you are asleep. They probably have some meaning but I have not really been able to determine what it is.

Strange.

I have these dreams way to many times a month. I mostly dream that I have to get my retirement paperwork complete and never seems to get it done. The keep telling me I don't enough time or something is wrong with my uniform. Strange because I was a Yeoman and uniforms was just another day. I enjoyed my career to the extreme. I have removed all military items from my house and don't wear anything military related anymore. These dreams are annoying. I can understand it. I wanted to retire and it was my best choice. I have done well for myself since. Anyone else there with these issues.

I have them all the time. It's weird, it's usually me back in the army in the present time, but intermingled with my current civilian life. I've been out almost fifteen years. I served almost ten years.

I thought that these would stop after I retired. It's been 7+ years and no let up. Granted, I never saw the horrors that some on here have, however they are still very real to me. Several nights a week my ship is: in a rescue, on fire, flooding, in a collision, aground, terrible engineering disaster that I am responsible for fixing with no help and pressure to make it happen so the mission gets done.. In these people often die and I am the one that informs the next of kin (Yes, that actually happened once). I am never the one that suffers, I must watch everyone else perish... My wife asks, "Did you sleep well?". How do you answer that?

Dreams or nightmares?

I have the exact same dream periodically- this after being off active duty for 21 years, and out of the USAR for 12 years!

Try this one i was in the navy for 10 years i keep on having the same dream that after i got out i enlisted in the army wich never happened these dreams are very real i even went to jump school at ft benning this is not stolen valor i have never tried to claim any army background it is just a dream that keeps on showing up
When i was a child i had wanted to join the army like my father so maybe thats what it is

Tony, ha ha ha Yes, all the time.

I was in for a total of 26 years, and I have been retired for 2 years. I have dreamed about being back in, and I think it is for two reasons. One, I regret retiring when I did, but I was too broken to continue so intellectually I knew it was time, but emotionally I wasn't ready. Two, life was much simpler in the Army! I always knew where to be, what time to be there, and what to wear. I never knew how spoiled I was until I became a civilian. My solution: work as a military contractor!