Transition Out of The Military Can be a Daunting Experience for Military Soldiers

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Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller was sentenced on Friday to receive a punitive letter of reprimand and forfeit $5,000 of one month’s pay after pleading guilty to all charges stemming from his public tirades against top military and civilian leaders.

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Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston wants leaders to stop scheduling training just for the sake of it. Instead, he wants soldiers to make time for something very important.

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What follows is a long article written by a soldier going through transition to civilian life. I am using it to help those who may be struggling since they left the military:

A veteran’s ordeal after hanging up the uniform in an America he doesn’t recognize

Nothing had prepared me to live.

Sitting at the required transition briefing at my last military duty station, I watched a ridiculous civilian brief a room full of soldiers about our Veterans Affairs health and educational benefits.

I zoned in and out until he said, “Not everyone thinks your service is a good thing.”

My mind slowed down.

Before my eyes flashed all the news articles I had read about veterans leaving the service and landing amazing careers.

Weren’t headhunters recruiting Army junior officers like me? Wasn’t I being thanked every time I stepped outside the base for my service?

He was greatly misinformed. America loved its warriors.

Even if things were difficult for veterans, I was surely an exception. As an Army captain with command experience, with multiple degrees, and with combat time, as far as I was concerned, I was a damned unicorn

Then I left the confines of the base, took off my uniform.

Months and months after applying and applying and applying to hundreds of openings, I sat across from a human resources representative for a “military friendly” company. She had heard me speak at length about my service and deployments. She glanced at the resume I had specifically crafted for the job opening of head basket weaver. She calmly put down my paperwork, looked me in the eye, and said:

“Yes … yes … ” as she waved away my service with her hand, “but you have no real experience, do you?”

In the lobby sat another officer far more accomplished than I, awaiting an interview. The day after, there would be more. It wasn’t the last time I would encounter this.

My service wasn’t an accomplishment. It was a liability. It was just missed years of real employment—as far as I could see.

I started to see my visits to “hero” job fairs—with recruiters who looked dubiously upon my multiple degrees and combat experiences—as a financial and mental health liability to me. They offered no possibilities beyond accepting a resume, then citing a “poor fit” for any positions. One offered me a minimum-wage security guard position, knowing I desperately needed the work.

Where were the former officers from Forbes magazine and the poster children of Fortune 500 military websites? The real unicorns had fled the stables.

I was searching. I was searching for good examples of veterans who had left and hadn’t killed themselves or hooked themselves on drugs or lost their best selves in dead-end employment.

I was looking for an employer who wouldn’t treat me as the solution to years of fiscal monsters. The personnel mismanagement gods expected me to deliver a solution, like all mythical heroes, like those “skilled in the ways of contending” do.

I had become so wrapped up in my employment that I couldn’t see around me.

My children were growing like grass while I kept watch over at the distant sandstorms of Iraq, as if I were still driving there and wishing at times I was.

So I put away my service in a box and worked through Veterans Day. I watched resumes come across my desk that dripped in military acronyms, ones I knew would never see the light of day. I read another beautifully crafted document where the veteran had reduced his entire military officer service into a single line.

But the more I ignored who I was, the more I was reminded by my coworkers and others.

“This is probably cake compared to Iraq, right?”

“I don’t think I could have done what you did.”

During formal introductions at a company event, I hear the dreaded question come, from a tall man with salt and pepper hair.

“Where did you work before?”

I took a breath and recounted and, as an afterthought, added, “I was also in the military for a bit.”

His eyes lit up. I clenched, waiting for the usual formal questions about my sanity and the later casual questions about how many people I had killed.

Instead, he said, “Follow me.”

I resisted saying, like all good soldiers, “Lead the way.”

I walked down the hallway into his office. On the wall, hanging, were the requisite degrees and family photos.John Thampi in Tallil, Iraq, in 2005, where he served as a second lieutenant. Photo courtesy of the author.

John Thampi in Tallil, Iraq, in 2005, where he served as a second lieutenant.

In between all of them was a smudge of green—a younger version of him, standing among a group of men from the Ranger Battalion. I turned to him, eyes widened. He laughed..

It wasn’t the only time I would meet men and women like this. The veterans I had looked for in posters and magazines were all around me. They were doing what I felt I was doing, working and living, quietly and without a narrator’s voice in their ears.

I recall sitting for an interview debriefing. The company I worked for had reviewed multiple candidates, and some veterans and the HR manager asked me, “So what do we look for? What badge, what years of service, what locations?”

What was the combination that ensured the company got a mythic corporate hero instead of raving suitor-killing lunatic?

I didn’t have an answer then.

Maybe if they had the patience to hear it, I would tell them the protagonist never really comes back. Rather, it’s his friend who returns to an America he doesn’t recognize. He adjusts, and studies to become a teacher, and attends baseball games again, getting used to large crowds. I would go on to explain that he is married now and has children, and that he refuses to define himself by his service.

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A reminder that I have a new book coming out soon. It is called, Signs of Hope for the Military: In an Out of the Trenches of Life.

There will be many chapters sharing my time in the military, plus many more that speak specifically about PTSD, war wounds, depression, etc. It also is a book for all of those who suffer from “battle fatique,” and many other problems once you get out of the military.

I suggest you come back to this site often, because I will be sharing more excerpts for you to read. Better yet…go to the top of this page and click on “subscribe.” When you do all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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So…how are your days going? Too long? Hate to go to sleep at night?

FEAR NOT!!

There are over 13,250 fellow veterans here on this site who have your back.

However, it the road is too rough for you to walk, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, and they will not hang up until they know you are OK.

1-800-273-8255…texting 838255.

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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There Are Many Great Stories About Our Heroes Who Fought in WWII.

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Military news…

“We’re under great pressure. We’re crumbling. We’re being overrun,” Retired Army Ranger Col. Ralph Puckett recalls saying in November, 1950, when he and a small force of other Rangers and Korean soldiers held off hundreds of Chinese soldiers during a battle near Unsan, Korea. 70 years later, Haley Britzky was among the first to report on Wednesday that Puckett will receive the Medal of Honor for his conspicuous gallantry that day. 

It might be obvious that drinking and samurai swords don’t mix, but, as they say about a lot of things, ‘tell it to the Marines.’ One Marine told me about his unfortunate experience with the two for a story I wrote rounding up reader submissions of the dumbest things they did in uniform. Other readers talked about picking up forklifts with bigger forklifts, or shorting out the base power generator because they were trying to watch Power Rangers. 

It might be obvious that drinking and samurai swords don’t mix, but, as they say about a lot of things, ‘tell it to the Marines.’ One Marine told me about his unfortunate experience with the two for a story I wrote rounding up reader submissions of the dumbest things they did in uniform. Other readers talked about picking up forklifts with bigger forklifts, or shorting out the base power generator because they were trying to watch Power Rangers. 


“The job of a Corpsman is to go through hell and back for your Marines,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Luis Fonseca at his retirement ceremony last week.  Nobody knows that job better than Fonseca, who is the most decorated active-duty corpsman in the Navy and who first cut his teeth running through a wall of lead to save his buddies during the 2003 Battle of Nasiriyah. Fonseca was awarded the Navy Cross for valor for his actions that day, but it was only the beginning of a long career saving Marines on far-flung battlefields.
The Air Force has deployed its drone-killing microwave weapon to Africa
The Air Force is currently testing a prototype of its new drone-killing microwave weapon “in a real-world setting” in Africa, Breaking Defense reports, a major step forward for the service’s directed energy efforts.
Military spouses are the backbone of the military

The United States military is the finest fighting force in the world, ready to deploy anywhere within 48-hour notice. A combat-ready unit cannot operate without logistics, communications, and of course, family support. While they don’t wear uniforms, military spouses are fundamental in keeping our forces domestic and abroad focused, supported, and ready to go
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The Air Force’s new drone-in-a-box is like ‘scramble the fighters’ for base security forces
New drones at Travis Air Force Base respond immediately to fence alarms or distress calls, giving security forces rapid eyes-in-the-sky.
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Why did I enlist into the Army? (Thank you for asking.)

I had three uncles that fought in WWII. Two of them received the Purple Heart. They were brave and was able to come home. They told me stories of many that didn’t come home.

My brother went into the National Guard after I enlisted.

I was a freshman in college and my first term GPA was 0.76! I was having too much fun.

Myself and two other buddies sat down and had a talk. We decided to enlist under the buddy system. I was proud to join because I honored my uncles so much.

I have stories about my uncles in my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life. Two of my uncles were in life threatening situations.

One uncle was a tanker. He was the man who was in charge of the tank with two other soldiers. One day he stopped the tank and told his buddies he was going to air out the tank by opening the top.

That turned out to be a mistake. A Japanese soldier came running up and tossed a grenade into the tank. It killed his best friend next to him, and he and the other tanker were wounded.

He never wanted to talk about that incident, because he felt it was his fault for having people killed and wounded.

Another uncle was in the infantry. He was fighting the Germans in France. He whole unit was attacked, and many of the soldiers were either killed or wounded.

Those that survived retreated. This left many man still alive, but wounded.

My Uncle could see the German soldiers coming through and checking to see if there were any soldiers still alive. If they were they killed them.

My uncle had to “Play dead.” He couldn’t move or even breath as one german came by him. They went on through and then the medics came back to rescue those who were still breathing. My was uncle one of them.

My third uncle was a SeaBee. They were vital to the war in that they built bridges across rivers for the soldiers to advance. This also helped with the equipment.

To me he was just as much as a hero as the others.

Stories about these three heroes are in my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Keep coming back to see what new things have happened.

Better yet, go to the top of this page and click on the subscribe button. When you do all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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Were you wounded while in the military? Are you still suffering because of that?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,010 fellow veterans subscribed to this site, and they all have your back.

If it is just too overwhelming for you right now. GET HELP!

There is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never face the storms alone!

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.

The Time Spent Deployed, Can be Frightening. Here’s a Story That Isn’t

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit for the site, please let them know about it. I want to reach out to as many veterans as possible.

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What a week I have had.

My back went belly up on me last Saturday, and I have been suffering ever since. I am taking Tylenol to help.

Today I went to have a blood test done. I turned to go into the parking lot, and I was amazed to see at least a hundred cars lined up to get tested for the virus. There is panic here. In my county there have been many people coming down with the virus. The blood test came out great, and I got out of there as fast as I could.

There are other problems, but I am through whining for now.

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Did you take advantage of all the free things for Veteran’s Day?

I hope you did. You certainly deserve it. I told you in a previous post that my Veteran’s Day day was being at the Oregon Coast. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the little town I went to was having a Veteran’s Day event. They were right across the street where I was getting a haircut.

I so wanted to join them. I could see all the American Legion hats, and they were hugging and really enjoying themselves. My haircut took too long and the event was over. However, it felt good to see such a small town gathering to honor our veterans.

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I will share another excerpt from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

I have chosen one about a Vietnam veteran that is from the same town that I got my heair cut at. It is the town of Waldport, Oregon.

He shared with me a story that was very positive and hard to find from soldiers of the ERA.

He said:

” I was sitting on the ground with a buddy, when I looked up into the trees. There were a bunch of monkeys up there playing around. I told him I would love to have one of those monkeys as a pet. ” His buddy said he would take care of that. He cut a hole in a coconut, drained all the milk out of it, and place a quarter inside it.

The Veteran then told me, “My buddy put the coconut out in the middle of an opening with a string attached to it. Sure enough the monkey’s saw the glittering of the quarter on the inside of the coconut and soon there were several nearing the coconut. One monkey reached inside to try to get the quarter out and my buddy yanked on the string catching the monkey with his arm stuck in to coconut. He pulled the monkey next to me and I got ahold of him..”

That started a long friendship with the monkey. The veteran even made a home for him to live in. It had a grass bed, food and drink there for him, and things were going great. The monkey really bonded with him to the point that he could let the monkey out and sit with him. He didn’t run away.

Well, some odd things started happening.

The other men were complaining that things had been stolen from their personal stash of food. Yes, it was the monkey. One soldier threatened to get rid of the monkey if he didn’t keep control of it. The monkey kept stealing food.

Then the other soldier had enough. He grabbed the money. He made a miniature parachute for him and threw him over a cliff.

The veteran was very upset that this had happened. He became depressed.

It was a couple days later, and as the whole group was gathered, this brave little monkey came strolling into the camp with the parachute still attached to him.

The veteran was ecstatic.

He had gotten his monkey back. I couldn’t get much more out of this brave veteran. This rest of his story was too sad for him to tell. I did find out that he was severely wounded, and received the Purple Heart. He ended up with a drinking problem, but overcame that with the help of his wife.

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Checking in..

How are your doing my friend? The times are difficult at best. The pandemic, and rioting. Not knowing who will be our next president, and much more.

The days like we have been having can drag you down . It can push you to the edge. I know, I was on the edge way back in 2001. I was ready to check out of this hotel called earth. I came to my senses and got help. I am still here to be able to write to you.

If you are overwhelmed, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7, and it is free. There are highly trained counselors there the help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

Please call if you need it.

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit for the site, please let them know about it. I want to reach out to as many veterans as possible.