[January 07, 2015] Anyone familiar with the debate over why veterans fail at a greater rate in college, business, and other measures of wellness, know that the most customary reason given is their inability to integrate back into society. I would like to propose a more fundamental view and that is U.S. military veterans fail more often because they would have failed regardless of their military service.
This is a two-part series on why military veterans fail more than their peers. Part 1 is about this unfortunate circumstance. This is also where I propose a causal factor not generally considered. Part 2 is about solutions. There are less expensive solutions than those currently in place and, I believe, may be more successful.
People join the military for a variety of reasons. Among them are: patriotism, adventure, camaraderie, and service to a greater cause. Other more pragmatic reasons see them join for education and retirement benefits and, naturally, the military gives them a decent living after entering the service with fairly easy enlistment requirements.1 There are other personal motives but what we know is the military provides structure and predictability more than any other open institution and as such is a valued commodity.
There is a process of self-selection that favors those who desire to live in a structured environment with a special set of core values, beliefs, and risks. Duty-honor- country is more than a catchphrase to our military but a way of life that provides great personal satisfaction, respect, and moral standing. While many military personnel are prepositioned to do just fine under these circumstances, some of them are not as well suited for a less orderly setting.
Civilian peers of military warriors continue to be tested in their daily lives and grow more resilient to an increasingly dynamic economic life of less predictability and structure. Our military personnel are also tested – frequently and vigorously – against principles that measure their ability to do well within an established chain of command and standardized procedures and processes. The long-term problem we have is that our military personnel function very well within a system that differs distinctly from the civilian environment.
There is little doubt that many veterans face serious obstacles associated with their service. From the nation’s recent wars with back-to-back deployments, physical and mental injuries, the stereotyping of vets, a sluggish economy, etc., no wonder there are problems associated with the transition to civilian life.
These obstacles, while posing problems for individual veterans, are important but not the real issue. It’s the simple fact that the military attracts, trains, and rewards our military people for adapting to a way of life that does not preposition them to adapt to the civilian world. Many who have chosen the military would not have done well on the civilian side despite success in uniform.
This does not, therefore, translate into success in college, business, and even into some measures of wellness like higher rates of suicide, homelessness, alcoholism, etc.
In Part 2, I will discuss some simple and practical solutions to the problem of veterans failing more than they should.
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[1] Despite fairly simple requirements for entry into the military, it is estimated that 75% of American young adults between the age of 17 and 24 cannot meet those requirements. The most common reasons are they are poorly educated, overweight and have physical ailments, and other factors such as drug use, criminal records, and mental problems. Direct access to a 2009 report called Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve documents this problem can be linked to here.