Posted on Aug 26, 2014
Should we have decompression time after combat service?
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I have recently joined the board of an organization (Team Veteran Foundation). Through my work there I have met a psychologist working on a book. She spoke about the decompression time that WWII troops experienced before returning home. This in contrast to the 24 hour return direct from Afghanistan.
Case in point. Remember the Band of Brothers series they spent all that time in Austria after VE day and then came home by ship and then by train. This resulted in as much as 6 months of non-combat time to decompress.
I have never served in an active fire zone. So I need combat veterans to please provide me your thoughts, reflections and views.
P.S. The mission of the Team Veteran Foundation is to eliminate or greatly reduce the Veteran Suicide rate. http://www.ttvfoundation.org
Case in point. Remember the Band of Brothers series they spent all that time in Austria after VE day and then came home by ship and then by train. This resulted in as much as 6 months of non-combat time to decompress.
I have never served in an active fire zone. So I need combat veterans to please provide me your thoughts, reflections and views.
P.S. The mission of the Team Veteran Foundation is to eliminate or greatly reduce the Veteran Suicide rate. http://www.ttvfoundation.org
Combat
Deployment
Military Life
Edited 10 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 25
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I left combat in OIF1 in June 2003 and in the course of a plane ride was back home at Fort McPherson in Atlanta. Civilian clothes through the regular airport into my family's arms. No parades or downtime, maybe two weeks off to start out processing to PCS to Fort Carson. I would wake up in a surreal haze for months not knowing where I was, had vivid flashbacks to dust/dirt/heat etc. even in the cold of Colorado. Definitely favor decompression but not in the current format of block leave after deployment. It needs to be before coming back, maybe 2-3 months at a rear area or in Europe.
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LTC Paul Labrador
I would wake up in the middle of the night trying to find my weapon (panicking that I lost it) only to remember that it was safe and sound in the arms room..... ;o)
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SGM Mikel Dawson
Oh man, do I remember that! My heart was racing and I was full awake not really knowing where I was. I think a decompression time would be a must.
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LTC Jason Mackay
MAJ Bill Whitman similar experience. SEP 2003, redeployed through CRC as a small unit (company HQ). Landed at Kelly Field at Hood by way of Bangor (best experience ever, God bless Bangor ME). Knobbed around for 36 hours in a squalid barracks with mattresses that looked like crime scenes while installation trans figured out movement to Benning for CRC. Got one of my Calibration teams to buy us weapons cases so we could fly commercial. Finally get to CRC, worked all night cleaning drawn equipment, get screwed around by CIF because Theater kept our body armor. Finally turned in everything and had our rear detachment pick us up in a van to go to Redstone Arsenal. We slipped in under cover of darkness. No one received us. My family was trying to get back from CA, I was alone, empty house. My Chief dropped me at enterprise rental car. He could sense it, I was waaaaay off. He asked if I was ok. I lied, I said I was cool. I rented the car and proceeded to terrorize traffic for the next 6-12 hours.
With nothing to do, I went to Starbucks. I was a regular before deployment. The barista recognized me and asked where I'd been. I drew a blank. One word. Iraq. Cue nervous and awkward silence.
The next week was sleepless. I couldn't sleep without the sounds of Apaches, keeping mortar crews off us. I cleaned all my gear in the drive way so I didn't drag nasty Iraq into my home.
Combat zone to the block. Less than 72hours. Customs inspection to dealing with normal people again. Had a "reception" at Hood which was a meaningless thumb in the eye (families go hug your soldier! - thanks, did no one think that through?).
With nothing to do, I went to Starbucks. I was a regular before deployment. The barista recognized me and asked where I'd been. I drew a blank. One word. Iraq. Cue nervous and awkward silence.
The next week was sleepless. I couldn't sleep without the sounds of Apaches, keeping mortar crews off us. I cleaned all my gear in the drive way so I didn't drag nasty Iraq into my home.
Combat zone to the block. Less than 72hours. Customs inspection to dealing with normal people again. Had a "reception" at Hood which was a meaningless thumb in the eye (families go hug your soldier! - thanks, did no one think that through?).
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Your military team becomes your family while you train, eat, sleep, and work together for months at a time. To suddenly let go and possibly never see them again the minute you are out of harm's way can cause stress that your biological family cannot understand. In fact they may resent it.
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LTC Dave Grossman talks about this in his book "On Killing". He mentions that all primitive societies had "cleansing rituals" that warriors had to go through before being allowed back into society. Even in WW2 (as mentioned) the long periods of time between the end of combat and return home (took a week or so to cruise back home on a troops ship) served as a "cleansing time" for our soldiers. Nowadays, soldiers can literally be in a combat zone shooting at somebody and 18hrs later be at home on their sofa. That can be extremely jarring.
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LTC Paul Labrador
SGT William B. He also stated that the individual replacement system may have made it worse in that soldiers were instantly isolated from their buddies when they DEROS'd. At least nowadays troops rotate back with their units.
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SGT William B.
Another good example sir. After reading the book, it became very difficult to look Vietnam vets in the eye in the odd instances they would come up and say "thank you for your service." It's heartbreaking to hear what those joes went through.
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Maj Chris Nelson
The ARMY rotates as a Unit....the Air Force..... I have NEVER deployed as a group....only as 1 or 2......
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LTC Paul Labrador
As stated in a different response on this thread, I was out of Iraq and back in my apartment within 24hrs my first tour (flew straight from Al Asad where we were stationed, to Turkey, to Ft Carson...with some gas stops on the way). It was very surreal. My second tour, we had a few down days at Al Asad (which was now designated as a secondary fly out spot due to the drawdown) after leaving CP Victory waiting for a ride. Having the down time made the transition a tad easier, but it was still rather jarring being home from Iraq in less than 18hrs.
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