combat stress

This is an essay assigned to me from my MX400 class, aka Officership, the most recent method West Point has found to waste our time. MS classes are military science, but we're not really sure what the X in MX stands for...but this was a halfway valuable exercise and I'd love to hear comments and criticisms!

I’ve read books recently by guys like Captain Nate Self and Chaplain Roger Benimoff, both fairly recent veterans of the Iraq and/or Afghanistan wars, in which they tell the stories of their deployments and returns home. One of the biggest takeaways from their works is that combat stress is very much a reality and that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a very real and dangerous possibility for anyone that serves under periods of extreme stress, especially in combat situations. What’s worse is that familial difficulties do not necessarily abate after one reunites with their loved ones after a deployment ends. The inability of the affected person to properly address their post-traumatic stress and the unintentional lack of understanding of that soldier’s friends and family can tear them all apart, and in a fatal way in extreme cases. I’m not claiming to be any expert on combat, combat stress, or post-traumatic stress as I have absolutely no experience in any of these areas, but I still think it appropriate to reflect on the experiences of others that I’ve read about or seen on programs such as Frontline.

The Frontline piece (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/) is extremely raw and it is a unique producing idea: don’t give the soldiers a reporter to tell their story, give them a camera and let them tell their own story. The story showcases two people- SFC Nunn who is the platoon sergeant and acting platoon leader, and SPC Shaw who is a “regular joe” in what is known as the Bad Voodoo Platoon, a platoon of national guard soldiers (and I say that not in a disparaging way). From the start, we know there are bound to be difficulties for the Bad Voodoos despite their bravado on the convoy gunnery range. SFC Nunn is leaving a son and 4 months pregnant wife behind. The last time he returned from a deployment he promised his son that he would never go back to war. SPC Shaw is nursing a fragile relationship. The reality is that we can’t deploy and expect all our problems at home to go away. We will not be able to completely separate ourselves from the homefront while serving on the battlefront. Once in the country, they begin a shitty mission: convoy security. For as far as they can tell, for the next 12 months the Bad Voodoos will be taking their HMMWVs on supply convoys from Kuwait into Iraq to provide force protection and projection if necessary. They begin and life isn’t too bad, but as the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months, convoy security gets real old for the Bad Voodoos. In one instance, they have a vehicle break down and must wait for KBR to come and recover the vehicle. Eight hours later, KBR is nowhere to be seen and they must jimmy-rig a fix. Some of the soldiers have already deployed but now must operate under a new, different, and often frustrating ROE (rules of engagement). They are also performing a different type of mission and the unfamiliarity and change is uncomfortable and stressing for them. They say it’s “not combat” even. The soldiers don’t necessarily believe in the cause that they are fighting for; SPC Shaw calls it “totally pointless.” They are “running themselves into the ground,” staying awake for days at a time only through the constant consumption of energy drinks (which brings about kidney stones and other health complications). SPC Shaw loses his faith in God, something that was once important to him. The Bad Voodoos spend Christmas in Iraq, something I would never wish upon anyone. All of these things are significant stressors in themselves, but add them all together and you have what amounts to a disastrous conglomeration of human emotions. Does the Bad Voodoo Platoon experience combat stress? Absolutely. Are they all subject to PTSD? Unfortunately.

All this analysis and reflection is well and good, but what it really comes down to is this: what will I do when I get to experience similar situations? As a quartermaster/logistics officer, it is very likely that I will find myself in a situation very similar to that of the Bad Voodoo Platoon- running convoys and “waiting to get blown up.” I like the framework set forth by Jerry Moon in his article written for the Center for Company Commanders, entitled “Force Protection for the ‘Hidden Wounds’ of War.” He starts with the obvious: you must address combat stress before, during, and after the deployment. While I don’t think that a particular phase is most important, I do think that prevention is perhaps of elevated importance in comparison to the others. Captain (?) Moon gives two ideas for addressing combat stress in pre-deployment: talk about killing and know your soldiers. This is obviously not an all-encompassing list, and I would modify it to say “talk about death- your own, your friends, and that of your enemy.” I would think an effective technique here is to use cases and vignettes to force your soldiers to begin to think about their own mortality, what it might mean to lose a friend in combat, and what feelings might be aroused if faced with taking the life of another human being, enemy combatant or not. Showing something like the Frontline piece on the Bad Voodoo Platoon would be great, especially the part where their lead truck is blown up and they are certain that the soldiers at a nearby Iraqi Army (IA) checkpoint are responsible for emplacing the IED; ask your soldiers how they would deal with such a situation. They might not come up with the right answer (because there probably isn’t a right answer), but they begin to think about combat and you can also start to get a handle on who your soldiers really are- which happens to be Captain Moon’s second point: know your soldiers. It’s important to know how your soldiers might react if put in a situation similar to that experienced by the Bad Voodoos, so why not simply ask them? They’ll be honest about their feelings, or at least I hope they will be, especially those who have been on deployments already. Captain Moon also talks about “using the resources available” during a deployment to help address combat stress, but this is something important to remember at all three phases of the deployment experience. The bottom line is that it is the leader’s (not just the officers but also the NCOs, who have more experience anyway) to prepare those under their care for the combat stress that is inevitable in what are unfortunately inevitable deployments. Will I be perfect at this? Probably not, but I sure as hell hope that I will be of some use to any soldiers ever placed in my care in a combat situation.