Contemporary world is full of various spheres of life involving people according to their attitudes to life. Everyone is a part of society and has his own vocation. Society includes different spheres which contribute to the development of the country. Military service is one of the most important spheres of life playing the role of countrys shield. Military service provides citizens with security and reliable protection during times of increased danger. This occupation inspires millions of young soldiers to join military service in order to praise patriotic values, continue traditions of ancestors, defend the homeland in hard times and provide citizens with the necessary protection.
Military service is worth respect and it gives a chance to millions of volunteers to become national heroes. However, this coin has two sides too. The one who wants to join the ranks of military service has to go through many challenges, trainings and tests to be able to protect the country. Military service means not only high physical activity but high emotional tension too. It is not a secret that military service is an occupation full of stress, aggression and nervous tension. When people choose an army as a professional field, they can hardly imagine the consequences of this activity. Soldiers who come to army have to go a long way to increase the rank and reach the heights in military art.
Nowadays the U.S. army has a lot of issues. One of the most important issues is the impact of military service on an individuals life. Contemporary level of stress and aggression in the U.S. army is disappointing and high enough to arouse anxiety in the society. Volunteers come to the army to fulfill the duty before the motherland, but they do not expect to face a range of difficulties in the process of becoming a soldier. Soldiers form an essential part of an army and make an active unit of various military actions. Soldiers go through many trainings in order to gain knowledge about behavior at the battlefield. Trainings involve high discipline, physical activity, performance according to standards, basics of unarmed combat and many other exercises necessary in military service. All trainings develop skills in a soldier which will help him during battle and will save his life. In most cases, it is hard to go through trainings as they develop new qualities in soldiers in a violent way. Commanders have an aim to educate soldiers to put away emotions and feelings in order to survive and save others lives. It is an essential part of trainings though it arouses a range of problems when soldiers come back to civil life.
Most of the recruits are individuals between 18 and 27 years old. It is important to take into consideration young age of the recruits while organizing the process of trainings. Sometimes trainings are so hard that recruits go through a tough process of adaptation. Brutal treatment and difficult exercises have a great influence not only on their physical development, but have impact on their psychology. An important factor in research of military impact is the one of young soldiers. Contemporary level of stress in the U.S. army has a destructive influence on womens psychological development. Most of the women suffer from many issues later in life and sometimes have to live in solitude. In some cases, if a woman had not started a family before she left for military service, she may have had problems in making a family in the future.
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Military service is a life changing element of society. Changes start within psychological frame of a young soldier. When young recruits start to serve in the army, they face a range of modifications in their behavior and emotional background. Military service has an aim to educate fearless, brave, serious, faithful and tough soldiers. Army has an intention to enable soldiers to put away emotions and perform their duty. Laborious, ruthless trainings and rough systems of punishment burn out the necessary qualities in recruits, preparing them for battles. Nevertheless, brutal trainings lead to numb emotions and insensible existence. Civilian life of the soldiers gains a pointless character. Military service makes soldiers always be alert and causes the loss of sensuality. There are many cases when soldiers along with their families suffer from consequences of trainings that come from stress and aggression. An impact of military service on soldiers lives is undeniable. Only few individuals manage to successfully combine their previous way of life and current occupation.
Soldiers are the core of military mechanism. It is a driving force of military development. A high military service provides country with safety, protection and tranquility. America is a country praising freedom and endowing its citizens with appropriate environment for living. The duty of military service is to protect peoples lives and freedom. A soldier is a functional unit whose aim is to defend the Motherland. It is a fact that military service uses strict, rough and severe methods of educating recruits. Warfare is not a sphere of life which can bear weak, untrained and flabby people. It is a source of strength, faith, confidence, reliability and defense. Training of soldiers is a complicated process that involves various severe methods. Moreover, soldiers experience a powerful boost of stress, aggression and negative emotions. It is an integral part of soldiers upbringing. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that contemporary military service educates brave, strong, faithful and patriotic soldiers.
On contemporary level of development, society faces a range of issues concerning military service. Various researches prove that military service causes a lot of mental disorders among active soldiers and veterans. There are many institutions that develop different ways to alleviate severe conditions of military service. It is obvious that if society wants to reduce consequences of military service, it should look into the root of military service organization approach. For instance, army educates soldiers to accept events as they are, not as they want them to be. Army teaches soldiers to survive in difficult situations disconnecting feelings and emotions. Army prepares physically developed but mentally insensible soldiers. The lack of feelings is the result of further complications in civilian life.
Organizational approach of military service is a harmonious system that prepares soldiers to act in an unexpected situation or emergency. Society is thankful to hundreds of national heroes who contributed to the defense of Motherland. At the same time, society worries about mental health of the soldiers and veterans who experience troubles in getting back to normal life. As far as I am concerned, organization approach should pay more attention to military psychology. Nowadays military psychologists use a lot of tests to define an appropriate way to train soldiers. They work out the methods how to train leaders and develop necessary qualities of a reliable soldier in them.
Military life has a great influence on soldiers. It changes lives of millions of recruits and affects their further perception of the world. Soldiers have to accommodate to severe conditions of military service, which teaches them to turn off their emotions. Emotional background is a sensitive element of human life. Once it is damaged, it becomes hard to fix it. Military service should take into consideration that it affects not only soldiers, but their families. It endangers lives of millions of soldiers and alienates them from home. Soldiers suffer from swings of emotions and hold it inside. Military service should provide soldiers with professional psychologists, who will help to cope with extreme situations. Psychologists should let soldiers express emotions. In this way, recruits will be able to speak about their worries and will not withdraw into themselves. Such demonstration of thoughts and emotions will save soldiers from a range of complications in retirement. Moreover, soldiers will be able to adapt quickly to civilian life and communicate with their families without tension.
Life of the soldier is not an easy matter to discuss. Soldiers face many problems which an ordinary citizen can hardly imagine. There are many documentaries about hostilities, but it is nothing in comparison with situations in real life. Individuals who choose military service as an occupation are worth respect for their achievements. Soldiers experience sudden changes in emotions and behavior when it comes to difficult situations. Hard trainings and intensive activity result in rigid character, mental disorders and health problems. Those who devote their life to military service suffer from a long list of issues. Qualities which saved soldiers lives during military service become their negative characteristics when they retire. For instance, increased vigilance results in constant tension and readiness to reflect the danger. Individuals become very sensitive to loud noises and sudden movements. Veterans often suffer from sleep disorders, mood swings and quickly switch from tranquility to rage. Moreover, individuals who spent their lives in military service react sharply to weapons. Soldiers need to adapt to civil life, and only few are able to pass through the stage of adaptation. However, life of the soldier is unlikely to come back to the condition before military service.
Military service is full of unpredictable turn of events. Soldiers who had a chance to defend the Motherland in the battle get trauma for life. Battles can not leave its participants without consequences of the fighting. In retirement, an experience of serving Motherland results in exacerbation of emotions. In some cases, veterans experience guilt and sorrow because they survived while others did not. They feel guilty that they could not have helped those who were in danger. What is more, veterans refuse to ask for professional help as they believe that their problems are trifling. In most cases, old campaigners understate their achievements and continue facing issues in private. Isolation results in depression which leads to attempts to commit suicide. It is a sad fact that the contemporary world has to deal with a range of cases of veterans suicides.
Nowadays, America holds a lot of events in order to prevent suicides in military service. There are a lot of government and private organizations helping vulnerable and mentally unstable veterans cope with their compulsive behavior. A high level of stress and aggression results in the increase of the number of suicides. Conditions of military service are getting tougher than ever before. Soldiers have to face tension, stress and depression during military service. Suicides take place not only among veterans, but among active soldiers too. Statistics of suicides among soldiers is disappointing as the number of accidents has tripled as compared with 2001.
Figure 1. Changes in the quantity of suicides among active soldiers over the years.
Most of the soldiers who committed suicide have never took part in a war. Nevertheless, war leaves imprints on the lives of those who had to face a lot of battles. According to the statistics, rates of suicides among active soldiers rose during the years of war. Emergencies always leave scars on the lives of its participants. It is hard to cope with stress and emotions after war. Above all, men are at risk as they take an active part in military actions and have to deal with weapons.
In one indication of deep emotional stress, the suicide rate among U.S. troops deployed to Iraq between 2004 and 2007, a period of intensified fighting, jumped from 13.5 to 24.8 per 100,000, according to a report issued in 2009 by the Army surgeon general.
Figure 2. Changes in the quantity of suicides among active soldiers per 100 000 soldiers over the years..
It is a fact that injuries influence the quality of lives of soldiers. It is hard to predict what effects trauma will cause in the future. In many cases, military service with its severe conditions causes post-traumatic stress disorder. Many individuals come back to normal lives after military service while others cannot cope with their stress levels. PTSD results in nightmares and continuous flashbacks of the past, sudden manifestation of survival demeanor and emotional swings. People may find these symptoms temporal, but practice shows that it is impossible to get rid of them without professional health. Soldier suffering form PTSD become stroppy and deny the fact that they have a mental disorder. Family and friends should be enough persistent in their attempts to help soldiers go through the process of accommodation. Disorder disturbs soldiers and prevents them from the normal way of living. PTSD causes difficulties in social and family life of the soldier, and results in mental and physical health problems. Fortunately, contemporary society is closely watching after the problems of soldiers.
The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), already struggling to meet an increasing demand from troops and veterans for mental health services, are watching the suicide rates, and the growing number of those considered "at risk" of suicide, with apprehension.
Contemporary society provides soldiers with health care programs and support that are necessary to get recovered after trauma. According to Military psychology - The psychology of military organization, the psychology of military life, the psychology of combat (n.d.), Today, most agree that any human being will break down if exposed for long enough to enough death, fear, and violence. There are dozens of programs for individuals suffering from mental disorders, who can hardly cope with it by themselves. VA specialists are responsible for the consultations of mentally vulnerable soldiers and are to help them go through pain and unstable emotional condition. Individuals who refuse to get help try to get rid of the problem by drinking alcohol or delving into work. Nevertheless, mental disorder appears with greater force in retirement. Emotions and consequences of stress and aggression of military service increase in several times and awaken unhealthy desire to commit suicide. Annually, the number of suicides rises and flusters society to take some measures to prevent the number of tragedies.
All in all, military service remains an integral part of contemporary society. It is a fact that warfare faces a range of problems today. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that military service creates an appropriate level of defense, safety and tranquility for citizens. Society worries about soldiers who are risking their lives in battles and offers to review an approach to maintain military affairs. Influence of military service on human lives is insufferable. Society works hard to develop effective ways to decrease an impact of military service on human lives. Military service should accept changes to gain complete trust from citizens and provide full safety for citizens.
