- Admin
- #1
anthony
Founder
As a veteran, and any veteran who reads this, will no doubt understand. Trauma going into an operational zone (war, peacekeeping and even humanitarian) wearing a uniform, with or without a weapon, starts the moment you leave home.
Being military versus being a civilian in any zone has an immediate disadvantage, being your uniform identifies you as friendly or hostile, depending on who is looking at you through what scope of a rifle. Bar a few countries where they seem to just kill everyone and call it 'ethnic cleansing' or such, even though they're often killing their own people, a military uniform makes you a #1 target. Everyone wearing one knows it too.
You're trained to by hyper-vigilant for just such reason, because you have to spot them before they spot you. You have to kill them, or avoid them, before they kill you.
It makes me angry from a veterans perspective, when the news or such get photos of soldiers doing stupid shit in their downtime, petty stuff... posing with weapons, drinking or blowing off some steam, and make it out as though there is something wrong, that they should be setting some example and all sorts of rubbish. Unless you're under that stress for those duration, wearing a uniform and knowing you're a target, you shouldn't say a damn thing about how they let off steam to unwind and try and stay sane for their mates and team, so they're effective for the next mission, regardless what that is.
It doesn't matter whether you drive a truck, are infantry, special forces, whatever... when in a war zone and wearing a uniform, you're a constant target. Obviously soldiers chasing down the enemy are often in heightened danger... but everyone has the same stress level constantly, especially when something goes boom or crack thump around you.
Media correspondents often try to explain some of this, yet they can't fully understand it either, even though many become as screwed up as veterans can and do, as a result of combat... because they don't typically go in wearing a uniform or holding a rifle, thus they don't become a primary target even if with soldiers who are being shot at. When they finish reporting something, they have different avenues to relieve the stress as well, which soldiers do not... they're sleeping, doing their next guard duty, getting ready for the next days missions and objectives. Media correspondents and civilians in such war zones obviously experience something close, but they don't have that constant additional stress of being a known target unless they live within one of those countries where man, woman and child is a good kill for the militia.
People wonder why veterans are impacted so much compared to other types of trauma... well, some of the above is the reason why. Don't get me wrong, there are a few civilian cases of trauma types that would compare, if not be considered worse, such as childhood ongoing torture and trauma daily... basically a prisoner of someone who is supposed to care for you. Stealing children to drug them and put them in sex houses for years... and IF they survive, they may be shot, discarded or become an adult slave to someone instead.
My point is... war is really messed up, and watching war acts when you can't act due to rules of engagement, is even worse.
Being military versus being a civilian in any zone has an immediate disadvantage, being your uniform identifies you as friendly or hostile, depending on who is looking at you through what scope of a rifle. Bar a few countries where they seem to just kill everyone and call it 'ethnic cleansing' or such, even though they're often killing their own people, a military uniform makes you a #1 target. Everyone wearing one knows it too.
You're trained to by hyper-vigilant for just such reason, because you have to spot them before they spot you. You have to kill them, or avoid them, before they kill you.
It makes me angry from a veterans perspective, when the news or such get photos of soldiers doing stupid shit in their downtime, petty stuff... posing with weapons, drinking or blowing off some steam, and make it out as though there is something wrong, that they should be setting some example and all sorts of rubbish. Unless you're under that stress for those duration, wearing a uniform and knowing you're a target, you shouldn't say a damn thing about how they let off steam to unwind and try and stay sane for their mates and team, so they're effective for the next mission, regardless what that is.
It doesn't matter whether you drive a truck, are infantry, special forces, whatever... when in a war zone and wearing a uniform, you're a constant target. Obviously soldiers chasing down the enemy are often in heightened danger... but everyone has the same stress level constantly, especially when something goes boom or crack thump around you.
Media correspondents often try to explain some of this, yet they can't fully understand it either, even though many become as screwed up as veterans can and do, as a result of combat... because they don't typically go in wearing a uniform or holding a rifle, thus they don't become a primary target even if with soldiers who are being shot at. When they finish reporting something, they have different avenues to relieve the stress as well, which soldiers do not... they're sleeping, doing their next guard duty, getting ready for the next days missions and objectives. Media correspondents and civilians in such war zones obviously experience something close, but they don't have that constant additional stress of being a known target unless they live within one of those countries where man, woman and child is a good kill for the militia.
People wonder why veterans are impacted so much compared to other types of trauma... well, some of the above is the reason why. Don't get me wrong, there are a few civilian cases of trauma types that would compare, if not be considered worse, such as childhood ongoing torture and trauma daily... basically a prisoner of someone who is supposed to care for you. Stealing children to drug them and put them in sex houses for years... and IF they survive, they may be shot, discarded or become an adult slave to someone instead.
My point is... war is really messed up, and watching war acts when you can't act due to rules of engagement, is even worse.
