Chapter 10: After So Much Is Invested In Creating Robust Military Identities, What About The Construction Of Fulfilling Civilian Identities After Service?

For the majority of those who enroll, enlistment into military service and life marks an abrupt shift from a well-known civilian culture and lifestyle(s) into an alternate culture. While civilian Western cultures tend to host a diversity of individualistic expressions, interests, and personal freedoms, military cultures are built around a rigid hierarchy of command, obedience and discipline, collectivistic uniform requirements, and loyalty to battle buddies (Devries et al., 2012; French, 2005; Hall, 2012a, Hall 2012b; Huntington, 1957; Sørensen, 2011; Wertsch, 1991; Woodward & Jenkings, 2011). The values, meanings, and practices of civilian and military cultures are different in many regards, and even opposing considering the fact that military organizations train and prepare service members upon entry into combat to break the common civilian cultural taboo of killing other humans (combatants). Boot camp, basic military training, and pre-deployment training all serve military purposes and must by necessity be powerful enough to cultivate a capacity among service members to carry out extraordinary tasks in extremely taxing situations (Ben-Ari, 1998; Brotz & Wilson, 1946; Kümmel, 2011; Strachan, 2006; Thornborrow & Brown, 2009; Verrips, 2006; Wilson, 2008). Military cultures serve as the cradle for such military identity constructions, here understood as a military story of who I am as a service member, which are shaped and developed by the values, meanings, and practices inherit within these military cultures.