Sebastian Junger: Why Soldiers Returning From War Have Trouble Adapting

[@biohazard592]

this man is spot on I got medical discharged in 2007 and every piece of me misses war everyday and I literally mean everyday

[@Keti9er]

Me too brother. I was 11B for 10 years, deploved 4 times. I miss it every day

[@doccrayon138]

I'm a FMF 8404 & was Med Sep'd in 07 as well, I am still having trouble trying to understand & fit in with people, honestly I have a very hard time being around them most the time and all but begging inside to go back. Echo Hard! "Doc"

[@ltlibby6220]

Wasn't 11B, but was with an Infantry combat company in Sadr from 08-09. I'm ineligible for re-enlistment and all I want to do is go back. I loved being with you guys, I volunteered for patrols and did a ton of ECP and tower guard and I'd do all of it again 100 times.

[@wulfclaw4921]

Same here

[@kurtmullins1725]

I understand you on this. I never technically seen real combat. I was in all the southeast Asian countries and had North Korean guards fire indirectly at us. There is nothing I mis about the marine corps besides brotherhood

[@Metaphix]

I wish this kind of stuff was still being talked about, it's so important. Not just for veterans.

[@corycharles5057]

Man you nailed it, this is it. Ppl tell me I have PTSD, but I know that's not it, but I've felt alienated like you wouldn't believe.

[@johnprosser7166]

I agree. I was U.S Army, 11B (infantry) from 2006-2010. I spent 15 months at Fire Base Doria (a small outpost in middle of nowhere outside of Kirkuk. We had no showers or internet or anything for months!! when I was there i absolutely hated it, my squad leader was killed out there, my friend Jack T Sweet (who was like me, from upstate NY, Rochester) was killed out there. it was so miserable at the time. Now that I have been out for 10 years or so now, I miss every single second of that place. for fun we just had coffee or rip its and talk for hours busting each others balls. i cant have a convo w anyone these days without them just barely answering bc they are on the phone. I miss the brotherhood, i struggled a lot when I got out. most of my support came from my brothers I deployed with. my family tried to help but they just dont get it.

[@808INFantry11X]

I feel your pain not to the same extent but similar its hard to engage my family because they mean well they always do but ultimately they don't get it and partly they don't really want to. The only one is my brother who was in the army has some understanding. I was Navy and Army vet and coming home is rough.

[@usernamechecksout11B20B4]

Ahh rip its

[@thevet2009]

Salute to Mr. Junger. Thank you for everything you have done in getting the message out.

[@jimbell242]

As a veteran I can say from experience that the greatest challenge to most of us vets is learning how to integrate into civilian life. We miss the extraordinary closeness with our fellow warriors, even with those who, were it not for the life and death jobs we had, we would be complete strangers. I had found over the decades since my service that it is impossible for civilians who have never served to understand this. As veterans, we greatly miss this extraordinary closeness, and most all of us have enormous difficulty adjusting to the civilian world where such closeness is extremely rare, and where it is virtually impossible for us to "find our tribe" again.

[@patfontaine5917]

Spot on, brother. Spot on. USMC

[@gudason4142]

I am in rehab from mental issues right now and one of my biggest issues is that im not with my unit. I got broken from stress after 8 years of full time service as a Sergeant in the armed forces. Ive served as a marine, a royal guard and as light infantry, and no challange ive faced have been worse than the one of being a civilian for 2 years, i dont fit in, in this world. Im going back into service in 1 month and im both scared shitless and im exited at the same time. I feel useless here, back in my unit i have a place, a job and a purpose. Here i am just a excess body and i cant take it.

[@rodneymullikin3242]

I am a Viet Nam vet. I spent 13 months and twenty-one days in country. My job was to live in a village and train the locals how to fight. This training was in fact doing. I was on patrol on my 13th month and 20th day. I thought that the military had forgotten about me. I received a radio message to return to the village, because a truck was to pick me up in 45 minutes. The truck picked me up and took me to Dong Ha. From the time i got on the C-130 to landing at Edwards Air Force in California was less than 48 hours. I slept the whole way. This included three airplane changes. I was awaken by the stewardess. I was the last one off the plane. When I got to the door and stood at the top of the exit, I wanted to scream, "What the ----- am I doing here?" I hated getting shot at, but I missed the men I was with. I wish I could have turned around immediately, and went back to Viet Nam.

[@fproszek]

You say you taught them how to fight? You graduated h.s. after learning algebra and volleyball then taught farmers how to march? That country has been attacked for centuries.

[@rustywater3219]

@@fproszek taught them tactics, techniques and procedures.

[@darinwilson1776]

@@fproszekre: “job was to…train…how to fight” operative word “job!” That’s what he was sent there to do, independent of the circumstances he discovered once he arrived. Clearly he respected the competency of his comrades given that he did not want to leave them. Highly possible that they taught him more than he was teaching them, that is how I read it. If you automatically apply a neo-colonial Marxist-postmodernist lens to everything you read you tend to miss a lot. I strongly suspect that at the time this reply was written @fpro was a white privileged brainwashed college zombie. I pray they’ve matured over the proceeding years and are no longer holding decades old confessions up to the poisonous, impossible and ridiculous standards of utopian materialism in all its grotesque forms.

[@nawdude4292]

​@@rustywater3219 yeah cuz our techniques, tactics, and "procedures" 😂 really helped us over there huh lol

[@rustywater3219]

@nawdude4292 not sure what I was talking about there and i don't make much sense, it's been too long.

[@lisaproust638]

Great video ... Even for those who are born these days glued to their phones, “trained” to be isolated from human contact (eye, actual conversation, bad posture due to focus on their devices), are creating each day a more isolated situation for each.

[@1985collado]

AIRBORNE. This man is spot on. Miss it every day

[@thearcticwolf7865]

Just found this video, and I agree completely. I have been out of the service now for nearly 20yrs, and I miss it tremendously every day. I deployed 9 times while in the service. The rush of combat, the brotherhood, the knowing exactly where you stand and what is expected of you are things impossible to recreate in civilian life. I have been a loner chasing that adrenaline rush and sense of belonging ever since. Not always to my benefit.

[@QuiqueFeroz]

I love chaos. Not for the misery it brings, Because when everyone is losing their minds, Mine, is running at it is best. I feel my shortcomings are occulted. . I feel calm. I dont have a death wish, But i dont fear death. My negatives in me cancel out the negatives around me. Leaving me at zero, and i enter a temporary serenity. As normalcy returns, So does obviousness of my shortcomings. And i have to renew my efforts at hiding my chaos. It’s one of the reasons i miss combat.

[@willshaw3561]

Quique Feroz I feel that way too. I'm at my best when the hole world is crumbling around me. It's a blizzard of shit and I'm thinking clearly..I believe its because I'm at one with my subconscious..

[@duckdrop9158]

Learning to operate in controlled savagery is almost impossible to explain. Do miss it.

[@willshaw3561]

DUCK DROP yes we all miss it.. But for now it's just a burning feeling

[@publiuscorneliusscipioafri2646]

Accurate

[@uponeldritchshores]

Beautifully put. I earned the nickname “Furious” during my time in for my unbridled anger on behalf of not just myself, but more so my mission and my comrades. It’s hard to bury that part of you, especially when you’re looked upon for such things in the modern world as a beast, leaving you feeling like nothing more than Frankenstein’s monster, now without cause, and without love in its truest sense.

[@iaintownsley8287]

Another fantastic presentation Sebastian. UKSF Veteran.

[@simoliz03]

Thank you everyone for your service!

[@Fabzil]

A civilian survivor of the Sarajevo siege, in Kosovo war, said that it was hell, but in contrast, everyone was helping everyone. Neighbours were sharing food, helping fixing broken stuff by the bombs etc... it was NOT a every-one-for-himelf zombie apocalypse edit : shit, I typed my comment and like 30 sec later the speaker said the same thing xD

[@nicolasloire7143]

Sarajevo is in Bosnia

[@neildraycott5272]

Wow I am a combat veteran this is spot on.

[@pankajgusain6312]

Such an amazing talk.... pretty much the issue is the collaboration

[@kellyoneal5498]

This is also why it sucks to retire from the military...

[@grunt2926]

Got out in 13. Now trying to re enlist.

[@gavinhill6156]

I agree

[@bonafordcraccawallen9823]

the group that kept me alive.. are my children... I call them my anchors.. with out them, I would have been long dead. never had problems while in .. but coming home and dealing with the idiots..now I live as far away as I can from any one except my children. but even they grow up and go out on their own.. so thank you for the talk..it explains a lot.

[@tobyblake851]

Coming back to modern society is very anti-climactic. For me, after 1 year in Vietnam I missed the flares on parachutes, sometimes filling the area, and all the helicopters were no longer there, the comradere with fellow soldiers was gone and replaced by a distrustful society looking for a way to pick your pocket. I dream of the cool place I was stationed at, the mortar attacks kept us awake; America puts me to depressed sleep; I wanna go back, to exactly the way it was, but next time I don't get hurt and medivacked. Like hundreds of American soldiers who stayed in Vietnam, sometimes I wish I never left.

[@smittysmitty481]

True words!

[@EdwinYee1]

This is why external validation is sometimes a good thing, I understand why internal is good, but it doesn't last long for single people in their 40's and 50's, they most like tried being happy alone but it didn't work after years and years of trying. All of these examples here are external validations.

[@laraoneal7284]

Love Sebastian. Love photojournalists.

[@mikegrant5721]

My man is spot on

[@htothejay]

15 months deployed to that base is an insane amount of time...

[@jerryavalos9610]

Junger nailed it. When you are discharged abruptly from one culture to another, it is traumatizing. I had huge issues adapting to the world. Luckily unlike other veterans, I was in the reserve and still had ties with a tribe and made adapting easier. In the civilian world, it seems all chaotic, no order, no purpose. My step son served in the Navy and did not see combat and yet when he was discharged, he had issues adapting because civilian life was chaotic in his eyes. On a base, you are safe and secure with purpose, you had an Army around you to protect you. I believe I slept best when I served.

[@jaypeterman2822]

I became addicted to flight deck, cat crew, never going to my rack,eating box lunchs,hazing,etc. I have tachycardias, yet when I'm in dangerous situations, my heart calms down for days.

[@devilsoffspring5519]

Sounds like you're what they call an "adrenaline junkie." Ever tried hang gliding or motorcycling?

[@johnacord5664]

It is a "Dog eat Dog world out there. A co-worker will stick a big one in you if it means him keeping his job. In today's modern society, a person will do anything to keep his family fed. Even if you become friends, his family would come first and rightfully so. That aspect of society SUCKS.

[@2004dale]

Chronic alienation. Bruh! Facts!

[@garretts283]

You notice when he calls out the flaws in our politics, everyone applauds in agreement. This recognition of this political disrespect isn’t a new idea, because you can see everyone in the audience knows and agrees that it is hurtful. The majority of our society would be among those applauding in the crowd. It’s not a new concept and most people agree it’s detrimental to our nations wellbeing. So why is the majority, who see this flaw, being run by it still?

[@nuggetBrahh]

They weren't applauding due to what he said, they were applauding to what they think he meant. They think he meant "orange man rhetoric bad" . What he meant was " fools that allow scum of the earth politicians, who literally sell their souls for ticks in a box every couple of years, to divide everyone from race nationality, family, traditions, beleifs are bad. But we won't talk about that will we.

[@prestonross6942]

He doesn't understand that when we are over there we get used to the constant adrenaline that is running through your brain. So, when you come home there is nothing back here that will ever trigger that constant adrenaline. Your brain chemistry gets trained. After a while you realize you were more calm over here than you are back here.

[@marc5385]

I love you're point of view. Ex-Cpl 3th Bataillon Royal 22 Regiment Canada served in Bosnia 94 Kosovo 99.

[@risefromtheashes6623]

He has another talk called 'Why Veterans Miss War' and one instant he notes was when the outpost hadn't been attacked for a couple weeks and he walked by one of the soldiers in the intense heat who muttered to himself, 'Oh God please someone attack us today.'

[@LadyOaksNZ]

💯💯💯

[@nccamsc]

Man was right so many years ago about the dangers of division.

[@2004dale]

6:15 I resent this about American culture

[@renegade_patriot]

This has aged so true. Nation divided. Half my heart is in Afghanistan,

[@missymason2377]

True.

[@mobilechief]

A group of Confederate P.O.W. soldiers were asked by by a Union Officer why they fought was it for slavery, they responded no Sir we fight for our homes one said I have seen how you treat your people in your cities and in the south we don't treat slaves that way. (Joshua Chamberlain ) Gettysburg.

[@mickfunny4185]

t Mann and this is why the nation’s economy is centered in the cities, not the rural areas

[@georgittesingbiel219]

This is why I like living in an apartment complex. Feels like a tribe.

[@nuggetBrahh]

You've clearly never been part of a tribe or close nit platoon like group then. Nothing could be further from being in a tribe, your all there in you separate beds and room and apartments with walls and floors and doors between you all. You wouldn't know everyones different smells or sleeping patterns , nor their weaknesses or strength. Hell id be surprised if you knew the person sleeping 9ft above you's name.

[@Grgrrr]

I’d posit that all of our political leaders (with very few exceptions) are worthy of the contempt that they acquire. I’ll go further and argue that those same politicians have shown little but contempt for the citizenry for decades.

[@tiburonballena09]

You see the best and the worst of people at chaos, fortunately you probably will see the best of people. Our primal instinct comes back.

[@kirstinetermansen]

Thanks hunk I think,. Habit, adrenalin, succes And civil is. No no, Lazy but great 👍

[@rrrohan2288]

we can fix this by not ever sending boys off to war in the first place

[@nuggetBrahh]

No, wrong you obviously watched it but only heard words, and didnt listen to the meaning of what he was saying. It's not the wars, shitty circumstances, tribal living, terrorism, fear, fighting, barely surviving, living in close quarters to 30-50 people that fucks you up. It's the dull nothing that you call an excuse for a life that is this modern western world that fucks us up. It's the lack of real closeness-ness , comradeship, the reliance on others the being relied upon that you crave after you've had it. The only people who get fucked up by it are the people who experience both but end up back in the dull nothing. It cannot be explained in anymore a layman's terms than that.

[@nuggetBrahh]

We can fix this by deleting the mass civilizations. Albeit they do a pretty good job of that themselves, (name one major civilization from the last 3000 years that hasnt collapsed multiple times in its existence). Funny how tribal living has been pretty successful for humans for at least the last 50 000 years. There's four thing humans are good at, fucking, fighting, hunting (there's no animal on this earth that humans haven't killed) and gathering.

[@douwehuysmans5959]

@@nuggetBrahh Exactly, there is a reason there is a mental health crisis and I don't think it's just the internet. I think it's the individualization that happened in the 90s

[@timothymichel1677]

I guess I'm weird. I don't miss any of it. I don't miss my unit (we were in Iraq for a year) I don't miss my squad (retired cop) I guess I'm one of those weird people who don't need a tribe, I just need to be left alone. But then, evolution has made lone wolves before.

[@tylerrezachek3788]

Lone wolves don't exist long for a reason, they die very quickly. It's a fairy tale we've told ourselves.

[@JohnB-dr8sk]

@@tylerrezachek3788 That is true, but there are a lot of people who really are loners and they could care less about human company. People who aren't feel the opposite. So I guess it just depends on the person/soldier.

[@tylerrezachek3788]

@@JohnB-dr8sk human beings are tribal animals and always have been. At our core, we desire to be around other humans. We can tell ourselves we like to be alone and this and that. But then that "loner" ends up going to the same gas station or store every day to get his social interaction.

[@douwehuysmans5959]

Maybe you're a trader / discoverer. In ancients times there were people that had to go on long journeys by themselves.

[@agnestenorio1092]

The world is sick and until we get through our heads that war is not a pass time and people will be used for gain of function!! The world keep committing to war and getting nothing!!!❤

[@kevinkeeran7035]

Nothing summarizes pre-Covid, pre-BLM rioting sentiments like "the worse things get, the better people act". His point about standards of behavior is almost lost in the last seconds of the talk, but is well made. Tribal peoples and soldiers both have these standards, but also faith centered communities as well, and larger societies clearly struggle with this....though Rome did a pretty good job of it for a time, as have others. (And it eventually fell innpart due to its fragmenting secularism colliding with a super-tribe of barbarians).

[@ericvondumb2838]

Great perspective!!! I'm not a Polish, German American. I am an American! I don't care WHAT color you are. I don't care what country you came from. We are a tribe made up of the losers and winners of the world. We are what washed up on these shores. There were no indigenous people. We ALL migrated here, some forced. Just a shout out to my brothers and sisters from Africa that were sold to the Muslims by their chieftains. We waged war against ourselves and here we are. The most bad ass nation in the world! I LOVE this tribe... except for the democrats. LMAO

[@johncenashi5117]

About the indian tribes: They actually did join up with soldiers from the old world. Some did atleast. But what Sebastian says still stays. The point is still the same. The majority refused to join up with the conquistadors.

[@ralphriffle1126]

Its the brotherhood shared between men. This brotherhood is possible ro have anywhere

[@donnysalleesr2074]

We are a Republic...not a Democracy...

[@bommykung5151]

Basically what he saying is go watch " The Walking Dead "

[@kirstinetermansen7234]

X get killed x 2 then fight for x, 1 it goes on, and on...

[@juliej7861]

I don't miss the military at all, but I do miss a) The brotherhood, and b) the work ethic. Since leaving the military, I have only ever found one job where I felt like my coworkers actually cared about the jon and pulled their weight. Unfortunately it was a contract job that ended. I haven't been able to find something satisfactory since, and I haven't felt a closeness to my coworkers like I felt in the military.

[@damone70]

Yeah, it must be tough when all your needs are taken care of... 🤣🫵🤡

[@victorbrown6622]

I was deployed to Balad AB, Iraq. Discharged for Threatening A1C Raymond Cartegena with a pipe bomb and assaulted him. It ruined my career. Alienated by USAF and anyone I have ever met since. Working in Airfield Management. Snakes 🐍.

[@usernamechecksout11B20B4]

My motorpool was right behind the airfield. I remember motars coming in and all of us crazy mfs were laughing and watching it hit the airfield. The rest of our company, non combat mos (Army) were in the bunkers. I miss war, not my unit though, weird

[@victorbrown6622]

@@usernamechecksout11B20B4 darnn mortars. I still have trouble sleeping. Unemployability!

[@Ty-kx6cs]

Wish I never came home, wish I had died.

[@thomasrush5417]

Are you good Brother?

[@obiopiah]

Hey @Ty Krebs, are you okay?

[@mik15schoeb93]

Had same feelin a long time.

[@timjoann1]

There's a Creator who created us to be moral creatures.

[@vodkacannon]

I know the truth is scary Tim.

[@devilsoffspring5519]

Yes there is, and that creator is ourselves.

[@TheVCHorseguy]

Civilians will never understand. I react very aggressively when some civilian puke says, I understand, POS have no idea.

[@robrobusa]

They will not understand, no. But try to make them. Aggression alienates people. Junger tries to make people understand by illustrating the experience to them. Have you tried that?

[@tonyseccia]

That kind of contempt for civilians will not help you man. Open up.

[@ssp5385]

move to a country where army service is mandatory

[@brianjoslyn7538]

Or thank you for your service. Jesus H.

[@c431inf]

Yep

[@missymason2377]

Maori marea a tribal house...families put down mattress...all sleep together. Altho short time...a memories of being

[@kirstinetermansen7234]

A women from jugoslavia, we talked, tears, we both said, yes my famely all are here, but it was a lie

[@Hordalending]

Tribalism based upon ethnicity is the natural state of mankind. Always

[@mobilechief]

True however we should evolve to over come it,

[@bryanitza-chulopez1658]

That's one of the early concepts of it. Nationalism doesn't fall far from it.

[@whataweirdo2441]

Can't be farther from the truth, even recently African warlords fought against Africans, Muslims fight Muslims, white people fought each other in ww2 and ww1, Japan and China biggest wars were amongst themselves. Ethnicity is too big of a group to form a tribe, culture on the other hand seems more natural for a tribe to even smallest extent like different underground subcultures always manage to find and stick to each other.

[@fletchermoore5428]

Highly untrue. People dont need a difference in skin color to hate each other. Yuval Harari has a brilliant book called Sapiens that I feel everyone should read. He touches on this subject.

[@michaels4255]

@@fletchermoore5428 , You are engaging in a straw man fallacy. No one said anything about "skin color." The point raised was ethnicity, not color.

[@steveminer3972]

Heavy 😐

[@kirstinetermansen7234]

Excuse me, we're Your ants, connected to the,,,, ants belived

[@Detroit03133]

Civilian life sucks

[@ammoroad]

I still have trouble being addressed by my first name....or worse yet...just my last name....by junior enlisted no less! I work with military and have E-4's and below actually address me by my last name. I tell them, excuse me? Try MISTER

[@timjoann1]

We didn't evolve, Mr. Junger. We were created by God. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

[@christopherpate6611]

Tim H you didn’t listen to what he was explaining, the military is totally different from the evolution of mankind, war is a totally different beast that is evolving continually

[@fletchermoore5428]

Yeah but you just read that in a book soooooooo........

[@michaelrobson9331]

Tim H Absolutely agree. However this man is talking a lot of sense about the subject he is concerned with as I can relate to what he is telling us having served in combat .

[@AllThings_Gaming-c1m]

Did the Bible speak about this disorders and sufferings of war ? I am still going through it

[@paulkenny3816]

And you women can also be traded for a Buffalo hide

[@gladysover5368]

I just lost all respect for this man. He doesn't see the big picture. Shocking - considering all his experiences. Communist

[@fproszek]

Wives.

[@paulrodgers5559]

This guy isn't old enough to have witnessed an actual " war ". Just the most recent , silly conflicts that pass for wars these days since 'Nam.

[@devilsoffspring5519]

In all fairness, the Vietnam war was a total joke compared to WW2. Barely any casualties at all, maybe 1.3 million or so. WW2 was your 'real' war.

[@pkramerable]

Enough with the tribal society paradise bullshit.

[@pkramerable]

This guy's worse than Margret Mead.

[@edmgat1716]

pkramerable you didn't even listen to the video apparently.

[@TheC1kabar]

Indisputable.