Military Reintegration Research Paper

Reintegration: Battle on the Homefront

According to the U.S. Department of Defense (2017), there are approximately 1.3 million men and women on active duty, 826 thousand serving in the National Guard and Reserves, and more than 2 million veterans who receive benefits. Of the over 2 million military personnel approximately 10% or 200-thousand are currently deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan (U.S. Department of Defense, 2017). Nearly half of all military personnel are married with children, accounting for roughly 2 million children who have experienced the strains of wartime deployments. Majority of these families have experienced multiple deployments as a result of almost two decades of combat deployments. Marek et al. (2012) state, deployments

Military families face notable challenges adjusting to life post-deployment and the reintegration period can be a turbulent time for some families, as members begin renegotiating the roles (Solomon & Knobloch, 2004)that may have changed during deployment (e.g. re-form into a functioning system). Bowling and Sherman (2008), found the reintegration process can be complicated by mental health issues (i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and substance use), and questions about the future. In addition to, the reintegration issues, military families who seek help through therapy will be coming for a variety of issues (i.e. family function issues, depression, anxiety, family violence, substance use, bereavement, suicidal ideation and emotion dysregulation). However, the stigma attached to mental health coupled with military regulations forces families to never seek treatment, which leads to maladaptive coping skills and the development of a closed family

Reintegration is a symptom of the more complex systemic problem within the military that begins with the sense of identity of the service member. The identity of a service member regardless of sex is to resemblance both the brother and sister to their right and to their left. Social identity theorist David Turner states, the service member’s self-knowledge is made of both personal identity and intrinsic characterizations such as personality traits, whereas, social identity, is the sense of identifying with the group the individual belongs too. Social identity is an important issue within the military, mainly due to the several cultures and subculture, but more importantly, it is because from day one in boot-camp the military depresses individualism. The military does this by forcing the service member to conform to the military rules and regulations, and the coveted uniforms. Within the construct of the military this conforming “An Army of One” creates and fosters a new social identity among all service members, which is solely used to reduce individualism, and nullify all occurrences of non-uniformity. Let me walk this last statement back a