War. Who Really Wins? by Gabriel Villa

America has been known to have the greatest fighting force in the world. From all the different branches throughout the military, we are considered the best in our field. We have won many great battles and wars throughout history, but do the military personnel win when they come home? Many of these great military personnel who fought these wars and battles suffer immensely from PTSD. 

Many military personnel have been in a combat environment. They have faced the harsh reality of combat and the things that come with it. In one TedTalk, Hector Garcia, a psychologist, talks about a Marine who he helped and the things he struggled with. Garcia discusses PTSD and how badly it can affect veterans who have experienced combat. I truly believe that veterans do not get the help they need when they come home from a combat deployment. I have not been deployed in a combat environment but have worked with many soldiers who have seen the harshness of war. 

Garcia explains how the military trains personnel constantly how to fight and prepare for all scenarios that can come with combat. He is right. I am currently serving the United States Army and did nine weeks of Basic Combat Training. Just like the name says, it is nine weeks of learning how to shoot, fight, and be prepared to function in harsh environments and stressful situations. Unfortunately, in my time there, there was never a class or lesson dedicated to learning about how to deal with the aftereffects of combat. I was never taught how to come home and be the same person I was before I left. 

I have been in the Army for two years now. I have worked with many leaders who have seen combat. I asked them how they dealt with it, or what the Army did to help. A lot of the time, the answers were similar. They were not given advice on how to cope. They came home, and that was that. They would be on patrol one week, and the next week, they were at the park with the children watching them play in the playground and had to deal with the things they experienced. Some of the other soldiers I worked with said they resorted to drinking and smoking heavily to avoid thinking about it. They had seen death of both their own friends and the enemy. It wasn’t easy to deal with what they have seen/done. 

I think the military does not strategize enough as much as they do when they send soldiers home from war. However,  I also think there is an argument to make that they are getting better. In February of 2023, I deployed to Poland in help of Ukraine and what was going on in Europe. Once again, I had just arrived at the unit, and they had many classes for us about leaving our families behind and being away for nine months. They really focused on mental health since it was not a combat environment, but just leaving behind our families and friends for a while. When it came to coming home, there were more conversations between my leadership and me about how to deal with stress. The unit did have some classes on coming home, emphasizing that time did not stop when you leave, so you must adapt to the new changes instead of trying to make it like it was. 

I asked those who have been in the military longer if this is how it was when they were young and were in much worse environments. They said it was always there; they always try to help soldiers to come home, but their whole focus is how we can win and survive. Their main effort was always preparing and planning for battles and patrols, and how can they survive if the worst happened. Their leadership would be the one to check in on them, and make sure they were 100 percent, but higher-ups did not “care” unless it affected the mission. 

I believe the military is making slow progress on worrying about personnel’s mental health and how to cope coming home, but there is still work to be done. We should not focus on this when PTSD is at its absolute worst, and they are lost. The military should be just as trained to come home than to fight, and the quicker we can come up with a solution before it becomes a problem, then that will truly make America the greatest fighting force in the world. 

Work Cited

Garcia, Hector. “We Train Soldiers for War. Let’s Train Them to Come Home, Too.” TED Talks, www.ted.com/talks/hector_garcia_we_train_soldiers_for_war_let_s_train_them_to_come_home_too?subtitle=en.