Warrior Ideals

This is a diagram from Webspiration that I am using to figure out connections among ideas of the warrior.  It is far from complete but shows some of my thinking thus far.

Great Warrior Videos

Some scenes from movies that are indicative of what we feel. These are examples of values that we warriors hold dear.

Myth of the Warior

Being an infantryman is a culture

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Fragment

Short video (five minutes). He talked about being fragmented. When I came back I took a lot of classes at Portland State that dealt with a lot of these themes. I took philosophy classes on the morality war, philosophy of religion, literature of warfare, positive psychology, personality, and so on, and also began my own therapy with a wonderful counselor. I try to keep an eye on how I am doing, noting my internal states, and I noted that a common one was the feeling that I was being held together by scotch tape. It was as if the only thing keeping who I essentially was from flying off in a million different directions at once was that it was held together by flimsy scotch tape.

Suicide Epidemic Hits Veterans

Portland Tribune Story from August 2008 tells what has become more and more real.  Listen up.  There may very well be some soldiers out there that don't buy into the ideas of 'friction' or 'combat stress' or 'PTSD' or even of 'depression'.  There are many reasons for this; stoic mentality and outlook of the solider, cultural norms and pressures, the uncomfortable nature of dealing with one's own emotional landscape (easier to ignore it, some believe), and more.  Yet here is the reality... whatever your viewpoint on mental states, soldiers are comitting suicide at alarming levels.  If you are in a position of leadership and you simply thumb your nose at the data, you are failing your troops.    By not taking this seriously you are failing as a leader and aren't worth your stripes.  Period.

Educate yourself on the signs.  Watch your troops.  Don't take no for an answer.  When we are out on a movement on a hot day, the good NCO doesn't take "I'm not thirsty sarge" as an excuse for not drinking water.  At least not any NCO I know of.  You  make them drink water (or if you let them pass out you do so with medics nearby so that they can get the pleasure of an IV to learn their lesson).  Why would any competent NCO treat drinking water as more important than suicide risk behavior among his/her troops?  Well, one it is uncomfortable to talk about issues.  How do we do it?  Do you just go up to a troop and say 'hey, how ya feeling?"  Actually, that's a start.  You already know your troops (if not, get to know them) and keep close to them.  Learn to read them.  Educate yourself on the warning signs and then wonder what each of the different personalities that are under your leadership would behave like for each sign.  We all show joy, anger, sadness in different ways.  And if you think someone is a risk... keep on them.  Stay close.  Hell, bring them home and make them watch bad movies with you just so they are not alone.  You don't have to be the world's best counselor, but you can be a good NCO and take care of them.

Shell Shock to PTSD

Shell Shock to PTSD Military Psychiatry from 1900 to the Gulf War

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Fiction & Literature shell Jones

Deployment and Stress

US Army pamphlet on deployment stressUS Army: Deployment Related Stress

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Pushing others away

One thing that happens with soldiers is that they distance themselves from their partners.  Why?  Is it that we are selfish jerks?  Or could it be that there is a protective component to what we do, that we are protecting others from something that is bad... us.

Positive Aspects of our Warriors

What is a warrior?  I've not addressed this question much (yet) but I'll briefly state that, while we have some very strong virtues associated with bieng a warrior, there are traits that are often NOT associated with being a warrior (such as mercy and compassion).  These are at odds with our belief that to be a warrior is to be able to quickly and decisively kill.  

However, the warriors from this nation's ranks are members of this country.  They are, I believe, among the best that this country has to offer.  To put it in 'plain speak', we want to be good men and women, we want to do what it 'right' and 'just' and we have this inherent belief that we 'wear the white hats' (are the good guys).

Our defined virtues of our military culture may not have space or distinct values as what is in this video, but our best soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, all carry the virtues in this video.  What happens, then, if you take good people of moral character and place them in a war where they have to do or witness things that are at odds with the people that we are?  It is an eventful occurence and one could shut down the human side and become only the soldier.  Yet what soldier, with honor, does not understand the human cost?  I argue that one cannot have honor without such a moral weight, that honor is indeed much more than simply a keeping of one's promises.

And what is moral conscience without emotional weight in our dealings with other people?  And what is this without a sense of jus ad bellum?

Here are some positive examples of what our warriors are.  We are ruthless, fast, efficient, and if need be, incredibily violent and brutal.  But we are also human, caring, sacrificing, and hopeful.  

Spem semper habemus

(we always have hope)

Marines in Iraq (this is our story)

It is Marines in the pictures... but the story is all service members in Iraq. This is a really good video.

SGT Doyle

Good job brother! Thank you for showing your strength and courage in testifying. Gods be with you!

A terrible, terrible video

This is an example of some of the terrible and counterproductive videos out there that the Army has in dealing with PTSD.  Instead of making things easier to talk about among soldiers, this video crystalizes sentiments against PTSD.  The nightmare sequence itself is a bit too graphic to have soldiers who might indeed be having nightmares to view.  I am amazed that this video is in use.  I know of not a single person who has seen this video and came away with a feeling of openness to talking about their experiences.  Instead it is the butt of jokes and ridicule, all mechanisms to keep the focus off of their own mental health.

If you are brass (officer types) or psychologists, this is an example of WHAT NOT TO DO in making a video to help troops.  Seriously.