How does war effect soldiers mentally?

Question

How does it effect their thoughts and feelings after they get home from war?

Answer 1

look at it this way, using Iraq as a example you send allot of people over expecting it to be H3ll. You get over there and you hear explosions in the background as background noise and it reminds you of the movies, you spend your first night getting settled to the fob as you learn what the previous unit learned and experienced. As a newbie as I once was it was a little odd to just jump right in but hey you get over that and then you just want to do your job. You learn that most of the things you learned in Basic and for some AIT (army) was mostly just BS so you have to relearn everything on the fly with your team. You get out there and you expect for the worse and you find nothing, you give people water, you ask locals if they know of any new people in the town and you start to settle down. You are not sure if you should trust these people or not but you don't want to let your guard down. I start to go back to base and you are expecting a IED or something and nothing, you go off and do a debrief so the unit knows what was going on and well you hear about how another patrol hit a IED or had contact. You are tired and you want to go back out there but you then realize its taken care of as air support was called in, you go to bed to prepare for the next mission, you go out and go to another village and you get a few shots, you fire back but you did not hit anyone, you question the village and you find out who it is, the BN wants to do a raid that night so you prepare, you are tired but you want to get this guy. You roll out and you hear UAV has spotted 2 armed men so you are hyped you get there 35 min later, UAV is overhead and you hear a slight buzzing sound you assume is the little RC toy that is worth more then your car and you bust in BY THE BOOK and you catch 3 guys all with weapons sleeping. You find the guy who told you where to go along with additional witnesses and you start to go back to the base, you then spend another 4 hours writing statements and gathering evidence. The witnesses have to write statements as well. After the intel guys are finished you go back to bed and you repeat this for 12 months (I had to do 15) and well you come back to such a relaxed environment, you are glad to be back, you want to drink and go find a girl that day because you just want to feel American again. If you are married I would assume you want to just hug your wife and just relax. Everyone who is close to you will ask you how it was and you tell your funny stories and your crazy story. You now have war stories and then you are reminded about the friends you lost or maybe you are reminded of something you do not agree with. Your wife, mother, SO asks whats wrong and you don't know how to answer them because you don't know how to put it into words. You then have to prepare again to go back in 12 months and that is all you have to have some normalcy in your life. You have 12 months to live like a "civilian" and then go back out again to the same country or to another. But with you watching the news you know its going to be another ball game, maybe you will be on a MiTT team or stuck in staff but for the most part and its odd its more controlled there, day in and day out you have a very good idea of what you are doing and its a odd comfort. I know for a fact I would enjoy those days where I wish I was stuck on the couch on some Saturday wishing I had something to do then doing up a endless amount of power point for a briefing that will be canceled an hour after you show up to give your battle brief only to be rescheduled for another time where you have to rebuild all of those slides again. I am going off on a little tangent her but maybe this will give you a little brief view anyhow    

Answer 2

It is Diff for each and also depends on what they actually went Through.

Vet-USAF

Answer 3

what ever their life and expeiences befor they went to war will be totaly turned upside down and their beliefs and general out look will be a little scambled too

Answer 4

How would you feel if you went some where that your life was threatened daily?  After 1 yr of that coming back home?  

Lets think like Bush and cut thier benefits...

Answer 5

you have no idea...

Answer 6

Soldiers are very different mentally. Most people will not be affected however there are some who really can't take it. It all comes down to the maturity of the individual and the ability to perform under pressure. People aren't designed to handle high stress situations it's something that has to be taught. However with all the training we do no one can ever say they'll be good at it until they experience it. It's based on knowledge, comfort, maturity, motivation, physical fitness, preparation, and focus. Hope this helps!