Joe…..This Bud’s for you
Recent news about the Military’s concern over the possible abuse of prescription drugs has prompted a Virginia Congressman to consider drastic yet not unprecedented action.
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam veteran and former war correspondent who now chairs the Senate panel that oversees military personnel policy, seemed to endorse the idea of letting troops in war zones drink alcohol as a way to relieve combat stress.
At a hearing of his Senate Armed Services military personnel panel, Webb asked defense and service officials about mental health issues facing deployed service members and, in particular, about a recent Military Times investigation into the military’s use of anti-depressants and other drugs for treating mental health issues.
Webb said stress relief is handled differently in every culture and suggested that U.S. commanders should reconsider allowing “alcohol for stress relief.”
Army Times
Alcohol has long been known as a social lubricant, and that’s no different when applied to it’s use by military personnel. This use, while often negative [every leader is well acquainted with the blotter report], can also be positive In the right circumstances. I left Baghdad just under two years ago; 15 months of no alcohol, no escapism, no pressure valve…except for 2 weeks of R&R leave. In theater, there is often no comfortable outlet for Soldiers to parse their experiences and come to terms with what they may have witnessed or experienced. Those events quite often get pushed down deep inside you…until a trigger or some random tick of the clock sends it all pouring out.
As it stands, soldiers are offered Combat Stress counseling with a stranger, a person who has not experienced what you just did, in a semi-clinical environment. It may help some people, but cracking a cold one may certainly help others….instead of waiting until they re-deploy…..to go from zero alcohol and escape to full on drunken retard in the span of a weekend. The families and the soldiers themselves pay the price [sometimes a very heavy price] for soldiers dealing with their issues after they have simmered and stewed. It may seem trivial….how can a few beers solve complex emotional issues that can range from accidentally killing a child to seeing a brother-in-arms killed by an IED? I don’t know how. But I think it can.
There are undoubtedly many of our brothers coming back with stress that cannot hope to be cured with beer and bonding…..but when it comes to saving and helping who we can…..our comrades and our charges….a little hops, malt and water can go a long way. Make no mistake, any allowance of beer in theater will be rationed and allotted during down cycles. It would not be allowed to endanger the mission or the men.
The Army’s “Battlemind” program is well intentioned, but as a participant I found it a waste of my time. Now, if the thought of re-writing General Order No. 1 seems like a stretch for the scrambled egg population, there may be another option to bring relief and closure to stressful deployments: emulate the British and Commonwealth Forces.
The King’s Centre for Military Health Research has an excellent and in-depth article detailing “The Use of Psychological Decompression in Military Operational Environments”
Major Maree Riley, an officer who has been involved in Australian Defence Force uses of decompression, notes that there is a second definition of so-called “third location” decompression, which refers to 48 to 72 hours in a location that is neither the operational theater nor home, for rest, returning of equipment and reintegration before finally returning to home location (personal communication).
The theory behind decompression derives from the military literature on combat motivation, which holds that the morale and effectiveness of any individual is dependent on his or her membership of a tight-knit social group3 and hence it is important to ensure that reintegration takes place within this social group just as much as operational exposure/combat.
KCMHR
Between allowing every Joe a couple of brews during designated down time and setting up a three-day stopover between Theater and Home Station…..a compromise can surely be arrived at. After all, Soldiers are not expendable assets, they are the heart and soul of our force and must be maintained better than any item in the inventory. The bond of love and trust that we share demands no less.
Posted on March 23rd, 2010 by Constitutional Insurgent
Filed under: General Military
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