Military Service Research Paper

More than 5,000 families in the United States, have sedulous relative fighting for our country’s freedom. Many of those families have not the slightest idea of what war is like, and all of its physical and mental effects. The author uses descriptive words to take the reader on a mental voyage. The soldier keeps a conversationalist tone and uses rhetorical strategies such as imagery and rhetorical questions to show how miserable he is living. The e-mail begins with the solider mentally describing your living area; he describes it like a million dust particles that are glued to you.

While the soldiers were in basic training the majority of the soldiers went through a process called “emotional numbing” which helped the men learn to suppress the feelings they generate. The men lived in fear, which is the most common emotion associated with war. While the soldiers were fighting they were surrounded by death and fear because leaves knowing that they could die or their friends could die at any second really took a toll on them. War just didn’t end when they physically left, war never the mind of the men. When the soldiers returned home many suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

More than half a million service members face mental health challenges during and after war. During war, soldiers are exposed to many different traumatic events that raise the chances of facing mental health challenges. The most common mental health problems soldiers are more likely to carry with them after war is PTSD, depression, alcohol addiction, and anxiety. In the book, “The Things They Carried,” written by Tim O’Brien, characters carried things that are both literal and figurative. While the soldiers carry heavy physical items, they also carry mental, emotional, and physical baggage.

Along with the shift in surroundings comes a shift in the mental stability of the soldiers. A good example of the effects is

A Wounded Soul In the Vietnam War, soldiers did not only carry approximately eighty five pounds of equipment, but the emotional burdens of war itself. The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien gives insight to how the Vietnam War affected the lives, and minds of the servicemen. O’Brien shows the impact by explaining different stories that have stuck with him throughout his life, and even though Vietnam is over, the battle of a veterans mental health is the strongest fight they will endure. In evaluating the soldiers’ mindset, relationships, and acceptance in society post war, this essay argues the consequences of veterans unable to find their life meaning and sanity.

Each soldier was affected by the war emotionally and mentally, dealing with heavy loads of stress causing them to feel fear, hope, and grief. Emotions could be argued the most severe and problematic on the soldiers. Keeping a strong, able-bodied mentality added with perception and decision making was a struggle for many in the war because they were overtaken with fear for their lives as well as others. These intangible things explain and reveal why the soldiers came back changed and what they went through to survive in a place where death surrounds them at every moment. These hardships created a negative state of mind which also adds to why they became someone

After the Vietnam War, soldier’s attitudes, emotions, and thinking had changed who they are and become. The Things They Carried (1990), written

During the Battle of the Bulge, soldiers fought in “grueling physical and psychological conditions” that led to persistent struggles after the war with remembering these conditions (Intro: Battle of the Bulge). Many veterans refer to the immediate effects of returning as the “shock of peace” (Childers). However, despite these widespread mental health problems, there were few psychiatrists to treat these soldiers as well as a “cultural ethos” that discouraged discussing emotions, especially among men (Childers). When soldiers returned home, they often had difficulty with finances.

(Alexander, 15). No matter their fate of fighting in war, a soldier will be permanently changed by it. However if they are able to reach for help from others, then they could get their life back on track. Veterans need the support of others in order to cope with their mental

Immaturity, by definition, is emotionally undeveloped; juvenile; childish. When taking the term “younger” into consideration, certain people may come up with different ages where they believe someone is allowed to be immature. Others argue men are the most immature of the bunch, and men may never fully mature, whether out of love for a person they claim as not mature, ever, or out of hate, or disrespect. Since draft men were more commonly in their late teens, they dealt with the horror and tragedy that is war, through immature actions.

While the effort of America was important in winning the war, there was a lot of discrimination and prejudice against blacks, Native Americans, women, and homosexuals within the military. The men who fought in the war saw terrible conditions and many had mental breakdowns. This chapter in the book explains the deaths that many soldiers witnessed and how many men became separated from humanity. This caused many soldiers to become insane. The final two chapters in the book talk about changes in the American society throughout the war and the results from the war.

The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in The Things They Carried During the turbulent times of the Vietnam War, thousands of young men entered the warzone and came face-to-face with unimaginable scenes of death, destruction, and turmoil. While some perished in the dense Asian jungles, others returned to American soil and were forced to confront their lingering combat trauma. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried provides distinct instances of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and reveals the psychological trauma felt by soldiers in the Vietnam War. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD for short, is the most common mental illness affecting soldiers both on and off the battlefield.

As Orkideh Behrouzan says in his article The Psychological Impact of the Iraq War, “War conditions create memories and wounds that outlive the wars themselves. Their images and sounds persist in air, economics, politics and private lives through multiple generations.” The mental and emotional impact does, after all, outlive the physical impact. Psychologists often try to classify survivors under categories of people having suffered trauma, but the individual experiences of war cannot be fitted under clinical terms.

Soldiers train rigorously, preparing for the departure of war. They sacrifice all that they have to fight for their country. As they return after the war, they are left with painful experiences and traumatizing memories, suffering from their inevitable conditions. However, the spouse, families and children back at home are suffering even more than soldiers.