U.S Veteran Culture Group
Introduction
The culture of veterans is made up of shared experiences that are traumatic and rooted in work done by soldiers. For every veteran combat is the beginning of a life long journey. United States veterans are a cultural group with a culture that is distinct. A culture that includes but is not limited to Values, ethos, self duty, code of conduct, established patterns of communication and high obedience to command. When soldiers come home from war, they enter the purgatory that is being a veteran. Someone who is no longer a civilian and an ex-soldier enters the culture of a veteran. Millions of veterans in the US have their symbols, own languages, and places where they gather and converse on topics that affect veterans. The historical experiences, current social status, family status, traditions, religious life, youth activities the role of women and men and the elderly in the community have been overlooked. The American veteran group is a unique population that has various military branches and varying wartime eras. The experiences in the veteran groups are unique and vary from one individual to another.
The military men and women who serve and protect the United States form the veteran cultural group and come from all walks of life. To honor veterans, the United States celebrates Veterans Day on November 11th every year to give America the chance to celebrate the bravery of all American Veterans. This day was first set aside to honor the veterans and end of World War I, which took place on November 11th, 1918. This day was formerly regarded as the Armistice day. In 1954 after the nation had been involved in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam war the congress was urged by the Veterans service organization to make amends do away with the word Armistice and insert the word veterans (Editors, 2009). As a result of this November 11th became a day to honor veterans who had offered their service in all wars. About 16 million veterans who are alive served during the least one war affecting the United States. About 5 million veterans served in peacetime. About 2.5 million veterans are women. About 16.5 million veterans served in World War II, and currently, about half a million are alive. About 2 million veterans served in the Korean War (Editors, 2009).
The veteran community also has a tumultuous history with healthcare. It has taken some time for the United States to acknowledge that there are health conditions other than broken ribs and body parts that are connected to their time in service. Post-traumatic stress is not recognized as a diagnosable disorder, therefore, veterans are not compensated, but this was not until 1980. Before then, it was called battle fatigue and a sign of weakness (Hobbs, 2008). Veteran culture is made up of about 27 million people. Veterans are being created every time soldiers, men, and women are deployed into the battlefields.
The role of the older generation in the veteran’s community is to keep the generation that comes after them informed, just like in any other cultural group (Hobbs, 2008). The knowledge that has been collected by the aged over time helps avoid past mistakes. At one point Kornkvern who is the founder of National Gulf War Resources Center once admitted that if it weren’t for the Vietnam veterans, they would not be that far in their advancement (Hobbs, 2008). The religious life of veterans is complicated and more challenging than of their counterparts, civilians. They are people and who are constantly on the battlefield were killing other people is not an option but a means of survival. Soldiers experience on the battlefield makes them view the world as cruel, unmerciful, and chaotic, which is very different from how the scriptures explain it (Burek, 2018). On many occasions, it has been recorded that the experiences of soldiers make them question the presence of God.
At many times when troops come home from war, churches experience a growing number of people with issues that challenge their personal faith and understanding of the world. Even after surviving combat, many veterans are faced with the challenge when transitioning back to their former live. For many veterans, the experiences of war become a haunting memory. These veterans could experience social, psychological effects of post-traumatic stress and as a result, some veterans end up experiencing problems spiritually (Sharma, Marin, Koenig, Feder, Iacoviello, Southwick, & Pietrzak, 2017). The church tries to reach out and help these people recover.
The youth are the young and the population that comes to replace the old in war. The youths are energetic and are much needed in the veteran community. They play a major role in this community. Trained youths are the ones that are being deployed into battlefields. Just like any community, the Veteran community has its own traditions. An example of traditions in this community is the creation of groups with officials who help integrate other veterans back into civilian communities where most of them feel misunderstood and have lost ties with them. The veteran community also has a very distinct way of paying respect to their fellow fallen veterans (Steinhauer, 2019).
For the longest time, Veterans as a cultural group has provided a challenge to health care providers. Traumatic experiences are rooted in the daily experiences of soldiers. One of the challenges facing the veteran community is post-traumatic stress (Nedegaard, & Zwilling, 2017). Veterans are individuals who have to deal with a psychological task of justifying the reason why they survived and despite being on the battlefield fighting and killing. Survivor of war constantly faces conscious and unconscious mental battles. From the history of this community, 30% of veterans who survived combat in all global wars developed chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. The women in this community are greatly disadvantaged since many female veterans report that they were sexually assaulted during their military service. Many women have to bear the burden of post-traumatic stress as a result traumatic occurrences and as a result of being sexually assaulted (Hobbs, 2008).
As a result of the requirements that are needed in the line of work of veterans, they are constantly moving from one place to another. In the veteran community, individual marry younger and raise families while they are still young since they are being separated from their families for long periods of time in some instances. The number of women serving as veterans has increases since 1970’s but most of the veterans are male meaning that the majority of military parents are fathers. Veteran families form a diverse population with diverse needs. Veteran families come in many forms such as single parents, two parents and dual service in which both parents are service members (Clever, & Segal, 2013). Military families are families that need to change as time as they undergo personal and military transition. The best policies and programs within the veteran community have been implemented to help families and children adapt to the changes taking place in that community.
Conclusion
For veterans, combat is the beginning of a life long journey. In the United States veteran form a distinct cultural group. Coming home from war is the beginning of being a veteran. The American veteran population is a unique population whose culture has been overlooked. The history of veterans dates to the end of world war I. in the United States a day is set aside to celebrate veterans. This community has a long history with healthcare. The elderly veterans play the role of informing the generation that comes after them. At many times, the personal faith of veterans is tested. For the longest time post, traumatic stress has been a challenge for this community. Families of veterans are unique families with unique needs. The veteran cultural group for a long time has been overlooked despite it being an important cultural group
References
Burek, G. (2018). Military Culture: Working With Veterans. American Journal of Psychiatry Residents' Journal, 13(9), 3-5.
Clever, M., & Segal, D. R. (2013). The demographics of military children and families. The Future of Children, 23(2), 13-39.
Editors, H. (2009). Veterans Day Facts. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/veterans-day-facts
Hobbs, K. (2008). Reflections on the culture of veterans. AAOHN journal, 56(8), 337-341.
Nedegaard, R., & Zwilling, J. (2017). Promoting military cultural competence among civilian care providers: learning through program development. Social Sciences, 6(1), 13.
Sharma, V., Marin, D. B., Koenig, H. K., Feder, A., Iacoviello, B. M., Southwick, S. M., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2017). Religion, spirituality, and mental health of US military veterans: Results from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study. Journal of affective disorders, 217, 197-204.
Steinhauer, J. (2019). Veterans’ Groups Compete With Each Other, and Struggle With the V.A. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/us/politics/veterans- service-organizations.html
