Writing Feedback / Psychological Effects of War on Soldiers [4]

I'm currently enrolled in Rio Salado ENG102 online course. I need assistance on some peer reviews on my rough draft on "Psychological Effects of War on Soldiers". My three weaknesses that I noticed since I've been in the class are as follows if there are any other noticeable flaws in my paper I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

ˇ Need to use personal Ethos
ˇ Grammar mistakes
ˇ Need to work on content

Teacher instructions:
Option #2: Submit your essay to Essay Forum. Essay Forum is a free, online peer review board moderated by top students, including graduate students and professors. After registering, you can submit the text of your essay with some guidelines for the review, such as your three areas of weakness or the description of the research paper project provided above. Do note that because this is a volunteer-based service, you may have to wait to get feedback.

Psychological Effects of War on Soldiers

Even though war appears to be unavoidable, as history has shown us does not mean the act of it is natural. War is define as a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations (2): a period of such armed conflict ("War"), as most things in life for every action there is an reaction and these reactions vary from person to person. In this case the actions of the individuals directly or indirectly involved in wars has a everlasting affect on them that only another individual that has experience some of the same situations can understand. After or during every major war this country has been involved in there has been a service member that has come away with symptoms due to the life altering events they were directly witness to or evolved in afterwards.

Service members are developing unfavorable signs and symptoms during and after war. The most widespread issue resulting from troops returning from combat zones is suicides, there has been a 50% increase in suicides across all branches of the military since 2001 until 2008 (781-804). Multiple news outlets reported prior to year's end of 2012 that there were more suicides in the Army than Soldiers Killed In Action (KIA), reports state that 177 Soldiers committed suicide while 176 were KIA through November 2012 (NBC News). Another issue that occurs upon return from a deployment is substance abuse it varies from installation to installation but in my units case alcohol was the drug of choice, we learned after being home for 30 days that the unit as a whole has had 30 separate DUI incidents with one Soldier receiving a DUI twice. Three out of five of my interviewees utilized alcohol to cope with their trauma of their experiences, more often than not most that have difficulties dealing PSTD find themselves destroying their military careers and sometimes their families as well.

Symptoms of PTSD aren't always noticeable right away, for some it's a delayed affect, and can be missed during the required screening process that is administered within 48 hours of returning from a combat zone. PTSD has been known date back as far as the Renaissance era but was unfamiliar to the people of the time. The mental troubles of war did not start to be documented until World War I, even them the medical community that was still unfamiliar to the affects of war on the psyche. The medical community believed at the time that only service members close to the impact of artillery were affected during war, labeling those troops with "shell shock" while others that experienced the same symptoms were considered cowards (Bentley). The members of my unit that I interviewed including myself were all responsible for different missions within the unit and have severe symptoms from that deployment, the only noticeable difference with them and I was that they were on their first deployment while I was on my third. As the medical field better understood the affects of war the ideas of "shell shock" faded and conceded that no service member in a combat zone was capable of returning with combat related stress.

When the first war started in 2001, the divorce rate spiked as service members began to deploy two or three times, with the military stretched thin with a two-war front. Upon our return to Fort Wainwright, AK, multiple Soldiers came back to empty homes and bank accounts, other soon after were divorced. I was more fortunate than others were but there was strife between my wife and me more than usual, there was not a clear reason why at least not that I knew of but I could admit that I was highly irritable. The decision was made to attend anger management class, which did not go well as I felt that after hearing the rest of the groups' stories my anger was on the lower end of the scale. Other Soldiers and friends of my unit have different experiences than my own "I attribute some of the issues in my first failed marriage to my PTSD. Initially, I was extremely depressed and really did not want to be around anyone" (Buckner). Which lead us to the stress that starts to presents itself within the spouse, The University of Utah conducted a study and found out that "study emphasize the potential role of relationship difficulties in the increased risk of cardiovascular disease among Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans with PTSD, the data suggest the possibility of similar health risks for their partners." In other cases the partner mirrors some of the same symptoms at the service member, in other words the partner will start to shut them out by not sharing their feelings or thoughts in order to avoid conflict in the home. Family violence is something I had to deal with at times when my wife and I would argue I had the tendency to throw things around the house or punch walls, once I broke my hand hitting the patio door. Once at Fort Benning, Georgia, I had to deploy for a fourth time for three months then again a year later. Half way through the deployment, my wife informed me that my son stabbed another kid in the leg with a pencil the school counselor suggested to my wife that my son see a psychiatrist, she found out that my son blamed me for leaving him.

Returning to work after a deployment in a garrison environment has its challenges, the methods that one takes to complete a mission in a deployment do not always work for a mission in garrison. There are days that I receive email from my battalion Executive Officer (XO) or in person, he'll give me guidance on a task he wants done and most of the time I'll find myself asking multiple questions because I have a hard time understanding his intent or the purpose of his order. The purpose of his order might have to do more with the fact I don't see the point in some of his orders. At my previous duty station, my First Sergeant (1SG) wanted all sections to conduct "Sergeant's time training"; "Sergeant's time training" is dedicated time to conduct training on Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) or basic military skills. I told the 1SG that I could not come up with any training for my section or even how to do it. When I thought about it, I figured that I haven't done that type of training in so long I just forgot but after doing this research I see now that my mind just wasn't set to do garrison type training, after five deployments most of my ideas on how to complete a mission are combat related. Problems concentrating are also a daily issue with returning service member which overall will affect their work performance and future promotions if their chain of command is unaware of difficulties.

The long-term effects of PTSD are still ongoing and do not have any clear boundaries of where they stop. Research has shown that veterans with PTSD have been shown to have more autoimmune disease, such as arthritis and psoriasis, than those without (Greenberg). This is particularly interesting to me since because when I came back from my forth deployment and a exam showed I had arthritis in my left knee. Studies have also shown that those with PTSD have a risk of developing heart disease. While in combat zones, there are times service members will find themselves burning an array of items due to the lack of recourses to get rid of waste. The reports are conflicting if these "burn pits" are affecting service members' lungs the Department of Defense (DoD) sites say there hasn't been enough research to conclude if "burn pits" are causing some troops to return with lung decease but there are several news reports where service members say other words.

In conclusion, my research as shown that these symptoms are nothing new to the military community and have a long standing history. There is still much more research that needs to better understands the affects of war and change the military culture not to be ashamed of what they are going through, and to bring down the bias that you have to be in close proximity in order to have any symptoms of combat stress. The burden that I have been carrying for seven years now is something that many have done before me and there will be many after me, I wept doing the research, the interviews and the construction of this paper. Do I have symptoms of combat related stress known as PTSD?