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thedrifter
07-04-04, 06:10 AM
06-29-2004 <br />
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No Advance Help Available for Combat Stress <br />
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By Patrick Hayes

thedrifter
07-04-04, 06:10 AM
Appropriate conditioning and training may increase firing and kill ratios, but even that will not prepare the soldier to deal with the aftermath of combat.



The question is not one of psychological preparation for battle, because unless one unleashes an army of robots or abhorrent psychopaths (neither of which would serve a valid military function). The normal soldier who enlists, is trained and then sent into combat will have a reaction to the sudden and unequivocal violence and carnage of combat generally, and of killing in particular. In this society, with the exception of killing defenseless animals for sport, killing another human being, even something as despicable as a Muslim terrorist, is not a normal function. A normal individual will have some level of reaction, the next day, the next year, 20 years after, or maybe more.



Combat stress is not new. The fact is, combat troops since before the Roman Empire have felt the stress of anticipating the closing with and engaging in hand-to-hand fighting with an enemy, and the very real possibility of killing, or being killed.



After war had become more “civilized” in the latter part of the 18th and 19th centuries, soldiers waiting to go over the top of a trench line into the withering fire of World War I – whether being bombarded or not – experienced considerable levels of anxiety and stress. However, although trench warfare was brutal, it was still a conflict between two civilized enemies who, for the most part, accepted the rules of warfare.



What has changed over time is how the essence of combat has progressed and the type of enemy we face today. Initial signs of this change occurred during World War II in the Pacific.



Waiting to go over the side of a ship onto the nets that would take them down to landing craft and subsequently onto a hostile shore, whether at Normandy or Iwo Jima, soldiers and Marines felt a level of anxiety and stress they had never known before. One enemy, the Germans, again were signatories to the Geneva Convention and, with some battlefield exceptions to the rules of war, followed those conventions.



The Japanese, on the other hand, had a different perception of warfare and no sympathy for those who showed weakness in combat. To that end, their methods appeared unusually brutal.



Although through history the stresses on combat soldiers were possibly recognized as some level of fear of the unknown, the pre- and post-combat stress had not been actually identified as a psychological and physiological phenomenon until the Civil War, when such symptoms as severe shaking, numbness, or a complete withdrawal, were called “soldier’s heart.”



In World War I, combat stress became identified as “shell shock.” By World War II, it was commonly referred to as “combat fatigue.” During the Korean War, “section eight” was a common term used to identify cases of severe combat stress. In Vietnam, it became the post Vietnam syndrome, with elements that seemed peculiar to Vietnam vets, but was later more generally and accurately recognized and identified as a post-traumatic stress disorder.



Along with the new understanding of combat stress, a new era arose during the Cold War, whereby Western soldiers were pitted against new forms of guerrilla warfare, such as the British in Malaya, where they fought communist insurgents.



The soldiers and Marines who landed in heliborne assaults into hot LZs or patrolled through the dense bush during the Vietnam war felt similar anticipation and stress as they dealt with an overlap of regular North Vietnamese forces, Viet Cong regular and irregular guerrillas, and terrorists who threw grenades and bombs into places like hotels and clubs in Saigon – all of which increased stress, because there was no “rear” area, as there had been in other wars. Hyper-vigilance became a defensive necessity for survival.



The anticipation of going into combat, especially for the first time, is probably more stressful than once the first bullets fly and you’re in the middle of a life-and-death arena. Once that happens, once the killing and dying begins in vivid color and the adrenalin is flowing, a different kind of stress becomes evident – one that makes the scenes and experiences difficult for most combat veterans to forget.



In yet another evolution of combat today, soldiers and Marines fight a different foe – not soldiers, not guerrillas, but completely single-minded, brutal terrorists who use and enhance fear as their weapon of choice, whether by a suicide bomb, a command detonated mine, a sniper, or an ambush.



Both in Afghanistan and Iraq today, combat troops are “on the clock” 24-7 because the threat of death lurks behind every wall, every bush, behind every veil, or behind the eyes of a child. Relaxing one’s guard is not an option and the tenseness and stresses that are built for survival do not go away simply by speaking with a psychiatrist or a clergyman, whether before and after combat.



Obviously steps can be taken by these professionals to assist combat veterans upon their return. Unfortunately, military psychiatrists and counselors have yet to devise an effective pre-combat orientation or training program that will work to prepare today’s soldier for the stress and violence of combat, particularly in a battlefield of insurgents and terrorists who blatantly ignore the rules of “civilized” warfare.



Patrick Hayes is a Senior Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at Gyrene0311@sgtgrit.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=546&rnd=212.83692834809221


Ellie