Lies They Tell Transitioning Veterans: Helping Fellow Veterans

Great Article!

There is a of good advice about where to get help when transitioning back to civilian life. The problem I see is that when we ETS/retire we are spread pretty thin across our society geographically. The support organizations that have sprouted up from advanced communication like the internet since I ETS’ed is good but it’s not a cure all. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.

It been my experience that most companies/organizations (baring police law enforcement type agencies) aren’t ready and/or don’t want the kind of frank honesty we are used to from procedures like an after-action reviews critiquing our performance from a mission and exercises we take part in. I believe this is our veteran’s most difficult challenge transitioning back to civilian life. How to take credit for the leadership we learned without frightening the people hiring us: it’s different for every situation, that is every person is different and every organization is different with their own cultures. Getting to understand that, and the slow pace you must go through to assimilate beck into civilian life, is difficult if not impossible for someone who is high speed/low drag. Speaking for myself that was the most difficult part.