RE: Coming home from the military
November 5, 2012 at 7:57 pm
(This post was last modified: November 5, 2012 at 8:15 pm by jonb.)
The brits help for ex-servicemen is laughable. If you brothers training is similar to the paras which is the british regiment I have experience of (at a distance), he has got a very difficult journey ahead. In special forces the troops tend to be trained to meet problems with aggression. This is what makes them so capable on the battle field, but when they are away from it and the 'esprit de corps' small aggravations can quickly mount up to set of the trained response. When I was a kid and most people my age can remember being told stories in their childhood of children being killed by their ex-service fathers after waking them up suddenly. In a way it was easier after WWII as there were so many ex-servicemen about so most people knew boundaries, where as little leeway is given for these men and women now. It was one of the great problems Vietnam veterans had that, they were taken directly from the war and dumped home, without the space and time being given to learn a different approach to life.
My advice to you, encourage him to give himself time to adapt, that setbacks are not important, and you to listen to his stories about the marines so that he can feel proud of where he was, and build on that into being proud of who he is.
Oh and I want to add his attitude will be right then lets get it done, and he will tend to rush into things. If he is thinking about going back into education, that will be very sedentary and after a physical lifestyle, and that alone will be very hard to adapt to, encourage him to take time off before starting if that is possible. Just deciding things for himself rather than carrying out orders is enough of a struggle to overcome. Slowly slowly catchy monkey, one bit at a time.
My advice to you, encourage him to give himself time to adapt, that setbacks are not important, and you to listen to his stories about the marines so that he can feel proud of where he was, and build on that into being proud of who he is.
Oh and I want to add his attitude will be right then lets get it done, and he will tend to rush into things. If he is thinking about going back into education, that will be very sedentary and after a physical lifestyle, and that alone will be very hard to adapt to, encourage him to take time off before starting if that is possible. Just deciding things for himself rather than carrying out orders is enough of a struggle to overcome. Slowly slowly catchy monkey, one bit at a time.