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TED Talk with Sebastian Junger (Restrepo)
Combat Vets: Sebastian Junger has a new documentary coming out called KORENGAL. It is the same story of the men of Restrepo, but instead of the telling a story, its goal is to help civilians understand WHY Soldiers miss it after they come home. He released a TED Talk (https://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_junger_why_veterans_miss_war) that was incredibly deep. If you have 13 minutes to watch this video, please do and comment here.
Combat Vets: Sebastian Junger has a new documentary coming out called KORENGAL. It is the same story of the men of Restrepo, but instead of the telling a story, its goal is to help civilians understand WHY Soldiers miss it after they come home. He released a TED Talk (https://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_junger_why_veterans_miss_war) that was incredibly deep. If you have 13 minutes to watch this video, please do and comment here.
Why veterans miss war
Posted from ted.comPosted in these groups: 
Combat
Brotherhood
Combat Brotherhood
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 8
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The post and video caused a good deal of introspection. I realized while watching that my PTS symptoms overwhelmingly come from the inability to execute the muscle or mental reflex honed in combat. Triggers continue to exist, but I am unable to respond per the training. I am expected to sublimate the natural responses. Part of what Junger describes is the desire to return to an environment in which the natural response is normal, not an aberration.
Combat rewires the mind. A mall is an entirely different place to me than to my wife. A routine walk is a series of calculations of distance and cover.
Always present is the feeling of separation from that great collective unit response. As a member of an Infantry Platoon, actions had a sense of predestination about them. An explosion went off and everyone acted in accordance with SOP. It was predictable, comfortable even. In many ways, the trauma of PTS comes not from the events themselves but from the inability to react to the echo of them in a way that seems natural.
That is missing in civilian life.
Combat rewires the mind. A mall is an entirely different place to me than to my wife. A routine walk is a series of calculations of distance and cover.
Always present is the feeling of separation from that great collective unit response. As a member of an Infantry Platoon, actions had a sense of predestination about them. An explosion went off and everyone acted in accordance with SOP. It was predictable, comfortable even. In many ways, the trauma of PTS comes not from the events themselves but from the inability to react to the echo of them in a way that seems natural.
That is missing in civilian life.
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This was the best TED Talk posted yet! Glad that you shared this so folks who aren't familiar with it are able to benefit, SSG Kevin McCulley
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