On September 30, Sebastian Junger spoke to cadets about the experience of war, why soldiers miss war, and the challenges of reintegrating into a society that has lost its sense of tribal community.
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Sebastian Junger, author of the book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, spoke to cadets about the challenges soldiers face upon returning home from today’s wars.
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MWI’s John Spencer sat down with Major DJ Skelton to discuss the second battle of Fallujah, how he was wounded, his recovery, and post-traumatic growth.
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On May 2, MAJ DJ Skelton spoke to cadets about his experience of being wounded, his post-traumatic growth, and his journey to becoming dubbed “the most wounded commander in U.S. military history.”
Read More*Note: This essay was previously published in Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, © 2012 Springer Publishing Company.
As recent high-profile news stories reflect, the U.S. military continues struggling to identify the underlying causes of the increasing incidents of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide (Swofford, 2012; Wood, 2012). Despite dedicating huge amounts of research and expense, the military seems no closer to identifying the root cause of this growing phenomenon. Much of the military’s time and effort has been centered on treating the problem ex post facto, but my own interest is largely focused on prevention (Barrett, 2011). Lately, I have begun to wonder if we are not victims of our own technological success. We have the global, technical, and logistical capability to bring many of the comforts of home to the battlefield. But our endeavors to make the combat zone more tolerable through technology and instant communication may have unforeseen effects, feeding rather than abating the problem of combat stress.
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