I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know the process that the US Armed Forces uses when rotating troops out of combat and back home at the end of a tour of duty, or when a soldier leaves the military altogether. I’m very curious to learn more about the process in place, and would ask that anyone with real experience with this help inform me.

On the way into work this morning, I was listening to NPR (as usual) and heard a disheartening “preview teaser” for a story to come, mentioning an Iraq war vet who had returned home, but found the adjustment to life at home too difficult, and took his own life.

It got me thinking about how we can better serve our soldiers who have served their country… not just by sticking a ribbon magnet on our car or other patriotic gestures – but how we can give them REAL support. It’s not right that more and more soldiers who actually survive the war come home to find that they aren’t able to adjust to the home and neighborhood they once knew, and die at home by their own hand because they didn’t get the help they need to fit in again.

I’ve seen stories and interviews with the families of soldiers who have returned, and the soldiers themselves, and common threads seem to be, “my guys over there need me”, “nobody here understands what I’ve gone (am going) through”, and in some cases, “I don’t know how to do anything else”.

Again, I don’t understand all the logistics of war deployment, and I’m sure it’s a complicated puzzle to work out, especially with our armed forces already overtaxed and resorting to stop-loss measures to remain at the troop levels needed for our current level of engagement around the world…

…but why not rotate out entire “squads” (insert service-appropriate term here) together at the end of their tour, and keep them together as a group at whatever base they’re stationed at (in the US) for at least 6 months. Let them adjust to living outside of a war zone together, where they can be there to support each other, just like they supported each other out in the field. They’d still do drills or whatever sort of work their specialty would do while stationed at base, but why not make it a mandatory part of their service schedule for those 6 months to do work on “re-integration” together as a team?

For those that are going to retire from the service when their time is up, provide them the same sort of skills and job placement services that large for-profit companies do when they have layoffs.  Provide counseling, job training, resume/interview tips, and the like.  Our government should take responsibility for helping soldiers re-integrate into “normal” society, including the necessities for being able to have a life when they’ve returned.

It’s criminal that some soldiers can leave the armed forces after years of service to their country, and when looking for a job, be told they’re not employable – that they don’t have skills that companies need!  Some of these soldiers joined up as soon as they turned 18, and aren’t interested in college (not to mention how pared-down the GI Bill’s benefits have gotten!), just in getting a good job to support their families.

Why should soldiers get any less support from their government and society than we’d give someone who lost their job in a layoff?  Athletes know that you have to do a “cool down” after your high-adrenaline workout… why not support our troops by giving them the same sort of re-integration time while still on the gov’t dime, so they have a fighting chance of adjusting to being at home again?

Am I totally off-base here?