Individual Soldier Research Articles

Weaving a Tapestry of Resilience and Challenges, Commentary: Clinical Assessment of Canadian Military Couples

As the months of wartime hardship ensue, servicemembers in the Canadian Forces continue to serve in combat zones in Afghanistan in considerable numbers, in addition to maintaining a presence in other areas throughout the world. Given the immediacy of active deployment of many troops and their families, attention devoted to military couples is quite timely. In an effort to illuminate central issues facing Canadian military couples, the author outlines her primary goals in the paper titled Clinical Assessment of Military Marriages. They aim to: (1) discuss the impact of is ‘isolation’ and ‘mandate’ on Canadian military marriages and (2) illustrate the value of using several theoretical models (i.e. strengths view, systems theory and attachment theory) to assess the overall functioning and adaptation of these couples. Since space constraints prevented the author from discussing treatment plans and processes, I will also restrict my focus specifically to biopsychosocial assessment with this commentary. Overall, I applaud the efforts demonstrated by this author to approach a complex clinical situation with a synthesis of theoretical models that sheds clarity on a biopsychosocial assessment. She has discussed both the strengths and limitations of each perspective very clearly, yet I will attempt to raise additional questions in relation to each theoretical stance that may promote more textured layers to this already sound analysis. How refreshing to see a paper that approaches a clinical case with a multiplicity of theoretical stances, prompted by the presenting issues at hand. All too often, clinicians rely exclusively on one evidence-based model that may focus solely on the behavioral and cognitive functioning of an individual soldier or veteran. In addition to the questionable validity of treatment approaches that allegedly accommodate all servicemembers, this multi-theoretical approach, in contrast, stresses the importance of individual, intrapersonal, interpersonal, sociocultural and systemic factors to fully understand the couple under consideration. Moving beyond a ‘‘one-size fits all’’ cookie-cutter approach allows us greater freedom to appreciate the complexity of military couples.

Judicial Administrative Review in Times of Discontent: The Israeli Supreme Court and the Second Palestinian UprisingGuy I. Seidman is a Senior Lecturer, the Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzliya, Israel.

Most democracies offer some form of judicial review of administrative action,1 yet they differ greatly in the remedies available, and in judges' willingness to pass judgement on executive action an...

Early accounts of Gulf War illness and the construction of narratives in UK service personnel

“Gulf War Syndrome” has become firmly established in public and political discourse, and considerable numbers of veterans of the 1991 Gulf war now see it as part of their identity. In this paper we draw on open-ended questionnaire data drawn from a large, random sample of UK Gulf veterans, collected in 1996 and 1997. Whilst there is already some literature focussing on coherent personal narratives of some veterans and campaigners, we suggest that they are preceded by much more fragmentary, shared accounts. We take the idea of rumour as a way of encapsulating how these partial ideas swiftly gained value by reflecting and reproducing social ties. Accounts describing fears about this mystery condition simultaneously made reference to concerns about their role as a soldier, about the purpose of the conflict, and rising mistrust of their commanders. As doubt over soldiers' function increased, informal social networks became increasingly significant, perhaps also linked to an erosion of respect for formal military hierarchy. At the same time, rumours of “Gulf War Syndrome” began to circulate, reinforcing the idea that the cause was elusive, and invisible, whilst undermining both the unity of the military force and the individual soldier's body. We suggest that the nature of Gulf War Syndrome as a topic of contestation in the years after the conflict was keenly shaped by these early rumours, which entangled specific ideas of the illness with feelings of betrayal, distrust and ambiguity. Informed by the general literature on illness narratives, we explore how the transmission of ideas and causal theories were themselves instrumental in the emergence of the condition as it was experienced.

Military Misconduct during International Armed Operations: 'Bad Apples' or Systemic Failure?

The various trials of soldiers for the excessive use of force or for the ill-treatment of detained civilians during international armed operations have attracted considerable publicity. The explanation frequently given by senior commanders is that misconduct of this type can be explained by seeing the alleged culprits as “bad apples” and, once they are removed, the military system should be able to operate without further incidents of serious wrongdoing. This article explores why the various forms of misconduct take place and, in so doing, it considers the effectiveness of training, the effect on the soldier of any uncertainty of action, command failures and group influences. The action likely to be taken (or not taken) by way of legal or other proceedings against both soldiers and their commanders is assessed. The article concludes by taking the position that whilst the “bad apple” theory might explain why some, but not all, soldiers engage in military misconduct during armed operations it fails to address the more important systemic issue, namely, whether adequate training and effective command responsibility can control such conduct. It argues for the need, on the part of military commanders, to reduce uncertainty of action or conduct to its irreducible minimum (through measures to counteract the causes of misconduct discussed in the article). This may then prove to be the key to reducing the need to rely predominantly on taking legal proceedings against individual soldiers in a search for alleged “bad apples”.

Affect, agency and responsibility: The act of killing in the age of cyborgs

I explore the role of affect (rages and panics) and pre-cognitive reflexes in enabling killing in infantry combat. I examine Vietnam-era infantry training, which constructed a practical agent of killing which operated at an emergent group level, using the trained reflexes of individual soldiers as its components. I show that individual soldiers sometimes retrospectively took guilt upon themselves (a responsibility that is traditionally reserved for acts of individual conscious intention) even though the practical agent was the group activating the non-subjective reflexes of the individual soldiers. To explain this phenomenon, I explore proto-empathetic identification, which produces psychological trauma at the sight of the blood and guts of the killed enemy, despite the common practice of dehumanization of the enemy. I also examine cutting-edge digital and video simulator training for urban warfare of the “shoot/no shoot” type, which produces a very quick decision upon recognition of key traits of the situation—an act that is close to reflexive, but a bit more cognitively sophisticated. The same proto-empathetic identification and individual guilt assumption is in play in this training regime, even as the use of real-time communication technology forms ever more distributed group cognition.

CULTURE AND COMBAT IN THE WESTERN WORLD, 1900–1945

ABSTRACTThis article reviews recent research investigating the impact of societal culture on combat performance in the western world during the first half of the twentieth century. It identifies two main strands of historiography. One group of studies has focused on societal culture's influence in shaping the form and functioning of military institutions. A second approach adopted by current scholarship has been to examine societal culture's effect on individual soldiers' resilience and motivation. The article compares and evaluates the results of this research. It concludes that, while sometimes overstressed at other factors' expense, especially combatants' common humanity and the complexity of militaries' own cultures, societal culture has proved to be a subtle yet important influence on martial performance.

A Career in Military Psychiatry

Corresponding Author: Surg Cdr N Greenberg, Senior Lecturer in Military Psychiatry, Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, Weston Education Centre – KCL, Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ Email: sososanta@aol.com Introduction...

Behavioral Interactions Between Aphaenogaster rudis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and Reticulitermes flavipes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae): The Importance of Physical Barriers

Predation pressure from ants is a major driving force in the adaptive evolution of termite defense strategies and termites have evolved elaborate chemical and physical defenses to protect themselves against ants. We examined predator–prey interactions between the woodland ant, Aphaenogaster rudis (Emery) and the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), two sympatric species widely distributed throughout deciduous forests in eastern North America. To examine the behavioral interactions between A. rudis and R. flavipes we used a series of laboratory behavioral assays and predation experiments where A. rudis and R. flavipes could interact individually or in groups. One-on-one aggression tests revealed that R. flavipes are vulnerable to predation by A. rudis when individual termite workers or soldiers are exposed to ant attacks in open dishes and 100% of termite workers and soldiers died, even though the soldiers were significantly more aggressive towards the ants. The results of predation experiments where larger ant and termite colony fragments interacted provide experimental evidence for the importance of physical barriers for termite colony defense. In experiments where the termites nested within artificial nests (sand-filled containers), A. rudis was aggressive at invading termite nests and inflicted 100% mortality on the termites. In contrast, termite mortality was comparable to controls when termite colonies nested in natural nests comprised of wood blocks. Our results highlight the importance of physical barriers in termite colony defense and suggest that under natural field conditions termites may be less susceptible to attacks by ants when they nest in solid wood, which may offer more structural protection than sand alone.

Reservists Help Soldiers Cope With Combat Stress

Reservists Help Soldiers Cope With Combat Stress

Making Revolutionary Change: Airpower in COIN Today

Much of the reporting on the Iraqi and Afghan wars focuses on the ground dimension....The fact remains, however, that Iraq and Afghanistan are air wars as well, and wars where airpower has also played a critical role in combat. --Anthony H. Cordesman (1) What a difference a year makes. idea that airpower would be playing a critical role in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would hardly have been predicted in December 2006, when the Army and Marine Corps issued a completely revised--but airpower lite--counterinsurgency (COIN) manual commonly known as Field Manual (FM) 3-24. (2) Complimentary reviews appeared in unlikely venues such as New York Times Review.(3) What seems to have captured the imagination of many who might otherwise be hostile to any military doctrine were the manual's much-discussed Zen-like characteristics, particularly its popular Paradoxes section. (4) This part of the manual contained such trendy (if ultimately opaque) dictums as sometimes, the more force used, the less effective it is and some of the best weapons for counterinsurgents do not shoot. (5) These maxims helped create the perception that the new doctrine was a kinder and gentler form of COIN that largely eschewed the concept of killing or capturing enemy fighters as a means of suppressing an insurgency. (6) Supporting this interpretation the fact that FM 3-24 favors deploying enormous numbers of forces--20 per 1,000 residents (7)--each of whom, according to the manual, must be prepared to become ... a social worker, a civil engineer, a school teacher, a nurse, a boy scout. (8) Further, as popularly understood, the aim of this revamped force was not to confront the insurgents themselves, but rather to win hearts and minds of the indigenous population. (9) To do so, the manual prefers a low-tech approach compatible with traditional Army culture that has individual soldiers engaging in close, personal contact with the target. In FM 3-24's interpretation of COIN, that target a country's populace. All of this discussion left little theoretical room for the role of airpower. FM 3-24's examination of airpower confined to a brief, five-page annex that essentially conceives airpower as aerial artillery. Accordingly, airpower discouraged not just because the use of force generally disdained by the popular interpretation of the manual's theory, but also because of the mistaken idea that air-delivered munitions are somehow more inaccurate than other kinds of fires. (10) In perhaps no other area has the manual been proven more wrong by the events of 2007. As this article will outline, the profound changes in airpower's capabilities have so increased its utility that it now often the weapon of first recourse in COIN operations, even in urban environments. As to weapons' accuracy, by early 2008 Human Rights Watch senior military analyst Marc Garlasco made the remarkable concession that today airstrikes probably are the most discriminating weapon that exists. It important to underline that the manual's flawed conclusions about airpower are not the result of nefariousness or service parochialism. Rather, FM 3-24 draws many of its lessons from counterinsurgency operations dating from the 1950s through the 1970s. While this approach remarkably effective in many respects, it inherently undervalues airpower. revolutions in airpower capabilities that would prove so effective during 2007 were unavailable to counterinsurgents in earlier eras. writers of FM 3-24 were stuck with antiquated ideas about what airpower might contribute to a joint COIN effort. In any event, many welcomed the kinder and gentler approach to COIN as being a near-total reversal of the less-than-successful strategy then in effect in Iraq. In early 2007 one of FM 3-24's principal architects, General David H. Petraeus, arrived in Iraq as the senior US commander, and the manual quickly became known as The Book on efforts there. …

“To us the war is a spectacle”: Domestic Consumption of the Crimean War in Victorian Britain

During the Crimean War, civilian war correspondents, most notably William Russell, kept the British public informed about the mismanagement of the war. The administrative shortcomings and the suffering of wounded soldiers shocked the British public and raised concerns about the effectiveness of the army. Following the war, Mary Seacole a colonial subject from Jamaica, published a memoir of her experiences nursing sick soldiers in the Crimea. Her book, which valorized the soldiers and their military leader Lord Raglan, became an immediate best seller. Not only did her book reinforce confidence in the individual soldier and the army more generally, but she demonstrated forcefully that a woman could find a place for herself in the masculine preserve of war.

Applying Human Systems Integration to the Rapid Acquisition Process

AbstractThe rapidly changing complexity of the Global War on Terrorism has changed the approach to equipping forward‐deployed military forces. Combatant Commanders conducting operations now require timely materiel solutions to enhance mission capabilities and reduce the risk for individual soldiers. To address this challenge, the US Army established the Rapid Equipping Force to assess emerging requirements, to propose solutions to those requirements, and to implement those solutions in an expedient time frame. Unfortunately, the REF lacks a consistent analytical methodology for assessing alternative materiel solutions. To address the need for a human systems integration (HSI) analysis method, the authors developed an Assessment‐Based Rapid Acquisition HSI Analysis Method (ABRAHAM) capable of generating tailored surveys and evaluating these surveys for unacceptable risks to soldiers. To validate ABRAHAM's concept and content, ABRAHAM was showcased in three Department of Defense settings: the Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group, the REF, and the US Marine Corps' Operational Test and Evaluation Activity. The ABRAHAM appears to fill a gap in the current library of HSI tools. Based on the feedback provided during the product showcases, there is sufficient interest and technological maturity to further develop ABRAHAM to serve both the traditional and rapid acquisition processes.

Souvenirs of death

War souvenirs collected from 1914 to 1918 by soldiers and civilians, men and women, offered a symbolic route of communication with the realm of death. Through the culture of war objects, collectors consciously staked claims about historical authenticity and about military power. For the soldier, a souvenir could serve as an aide-mmoire to actualize the past and to trigger narrative. For a grieving widow, a souvenir might memorialize the dead. Just as collections of objects build series, war narratives build on lists that collect objects, vignettes about individual soldiers, and a succession of losses. When narrative breaks down, such lists foreground the problem of connection and the difficulty of constructing meaning out of calamity. The importance of these uncanny objects springs from the collective experience of trauma.

Ethik der Inneren Führung

Wolf Graf von Baudissin is well known for his reformatory concept of the armed forces called Innere Führung (leadership development and civic education). He emphasises the idea of building up a Western German army, a new start in a democratic environment. Baudissin’s ideas are born out of the experience of injustice and inhumanity shown by many German soldiers and the organisational structure of the Wehrmacht. After World War II German military leaders excused the absence of morals in their conduct with the necessity of obedience. Innere Führung means that the soldier is a human being, thus guided by his individual conscience and eternal law. Innere Führung has moreover a second meaning: It forms a military organisation which guarantees the individual soldier freedom, human and political rights, participation in military and political decisions, and responsibility for his acts. Therefore, Innere Führung is a concept to anchor democracy in military structures. Because of the actual problems of military missions abroad the founding ideas of Innere Führung are still of increasing importance.

Western Masculinities in War and Peace

IT WAS A COMMONPLACE for America's founding fathers to evoke the ideal of the ancient Greek and Roman citizen-soldier as a model for their own times, nurtured as they were on the principles of republican discourse. Even before the proclamation of independence, George Washington affirmed that When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in that happy hour when the re-establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid foundations, shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peaceful, and happy Country.' The reinvigoration of this tradition in North America was made possible by the presence of self-reliant property owners who were willing to take up arms against distant authority in defense of emerging political rights. This is the standard political narrative of the American Revolution, but there is a gender tale to tell as well. The men who made the transition from citizens to soldiers were obliged to leave behind a sense of manly competence as heads of household for a life in which they lived rough, submitted to discipline, and survived on their fighting skills and personal courage.2 Thus began the first modern experiment in the creation of a form of masculinity peculiar to the modern nation-state, in which the citizen must carry within himself the qualities of a warrior, but as a warrior must also remain the citizen he will become again at conflict's end. Much in modern history has depended on a nation's ability to manage this transition between civilian and military masculinities in ways that neither jeopardized the efficient conduct of warfare nor troubled civic peace. Indeed, one might argue that the greater process of nation building has been successful to the extent that national identity has been effectively embodied in the identity of the individual soldier as a national masculinity that attenuates masculinities of class, region, and ethnicity. In the crucible of modern warfare, states have disintegrated when they have failed to bestow rights and services in proportion to the sacrifices their soldiers have made, or when unincorporated social elements have undermined the unity of national re-

The Acute Traumatic Moment—Psychic Trauma in War: Psychoanalytic Perspectives

The acute traumatic moment is defined as the sudden conscious, awareness of intense and devastating feelings of helplessness to cope before the, fear of injury and death. The sudden overwhelming of three processes often precipitates the acute traumatic moment: (1) the ego ideal with specific narcissistic, defenses associated with the idealized self, (2) the illusion of safety; and (3) the, mechanisms of denial. The author discusses the developmental origins of the illusion of safety, rational and irrational contributions to its configuration, and its, importance as a psychological construct in the life of the individual soldier. The, author examines the acute traumatic moment as it may occur upon exposure to, threats of injury and death during war from a psychoanalytic perspective., Clinical vignettes of soldiers are presented.

Disordered Eating in Entry-Level Military Personnel

The goal was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for disordered eating in an entry-level U.S. Army population. A cross-sectional survey of advanced individual training U.S. Army soldiers at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, was performed with an anonymous self-report survey containing demographic factors, history (including abuse and psychiatric treatment), and Eating Attitudes Test-26. Of 1,184 advanced individual training soldiers approached, 1090 participated. The response rate was 91.2% (955 men and 135 women). Forty percent were overweight (body mass index of > or =25), 11% reported a psychiatric history, 26% reported a history of abuse, and 9.8% endorsed disordered eating (male, 7.0%; female, 29.6%), as defined by Eating Attitudes Test-26. Factors that placed soldiers at higher risk for disordered eating were female gender (odds ratio, 5.63; 95% confidence interval, 3.32-9.57; p < 0.00005), overweight (odds ratio, 3.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.92-4.89; p < 0.00005), previous psychiatric treatment (odds ratio, 1.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-3.36; p = 0.035), and history of verbal abuse (odds ratio, 2.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-3.51; p = 0.014). Our study shows a higher than expected rate of disordered eating in advanced individual training soldiers with identifiable risk factors. This indicates an important need for further study, effective screening, preventive counseling, and early intervention for treatment.

Benefits of a Musculoskeletal Screening Examination for Initial Entry Training Soldiers

Soldiers reporting for Individual Entry Training from basic training posts frequently arrive unable to initiate or complete training due to musculoskeletal injuries. Therefore, a screening examination was developed to identify musculoskeletal injuries and provide appropriate medical intervention as needed. During a consecutive 5-week period, 1013 soldiers reported for training to Fort Lee, Virginia. Of these, 105 (10.4%) reported for medical screening because they stated that they had an injury or could not pass a physical fitness test. After screening, 76 (72%) were found to have physical restrictions that would limit their ability to fully participate in training. The injured soldiers were referred for and received medical intervention. Of the total number of soldiers screened, 97 (92%) were able to complete their training, pass a physical fitness test, and graduate on time. This study documents the use and benefits of a brief musculoskeletal screening examination for individual entry training soldiers.

Kitsch &amp; Kunst: Presentations of a Lost War by Maggie Sargeant

284 Reviews ofCoffee (I941), though now almost forgotten, she enjoyed a very successful writing career. Lilo Linke also had a successful professional career, though her best-seller Restless Flags: A German Girl's Story (1935) iSnow also virtually forgotten.To a certain extent Georg Tabori's firstEnglish-language novel, the thrillerBeneath the Stone theScorpion (I945), has also faded from literary memory and it ishis contro versial plays, such as The Cannibals (i 968), which are remembered. Brunnhuber rounds offher studywith thoughts on the adoption by thesewriters in exile of theEnglish language and popular literaryforms such as thedetective storyand the romance. Clearly language-switching occurred not simply because publication in German was virtually impossible or because thewriters wished to demonstrate a pro-British and anti-Fascist stance. German-language writers found theycould com municate their positive and negative feelings about exile and theirhost land in their English-language novels.What they riskedwas being written out ofmost literaryhis tories.Brunnhuber's study convinces one that these translinguals, male and female, deserve tobe remembered. This is a veryworthwhile rescue operation. INSTITUTE OF GERMANIC AND ROMANCE STUDIES, LONDON J.M. RITCHIE Kitsch & Kunst: Presentations of a Lost War. By MAGGIE SARGEANT. Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang. 2005. 275 PP. ?32; SwF 71; E48.90. ISBN 978-3-039IO 512-0. This book shows how West German novelists represented the Second World War, and explores the implications of their reception, highlighting complex issues still associated with Vergangenheitsbewdltigung.By bringing togetherworks byAlfred An dersch, Heinrich Bo11,Hans Hellmut Kirst, Heinz G. Konsalik, TheodorPlievier, and Erich Maria Remarque, the author emphasizes the importance of their classification as eitherKitsch or Kunst, yet in the concluding remarks she claims: 'The strategies which writers have developed toengage with thepast cannot be distinguished by their classification asKitsch orKunst' (p. 25 I). The reader deduces that a snappy titlehas been used toevaluate texts that in factare associated primarily by theirsubject-matter. Problems faced by theGerman soldier and officer,both at the frontand at home, and links between theNational Socialist regime and theGerman army,provide amainly sociological study, backed up by comments on the use of narrative techniques. The problems of guilt forwar emerge clearly on the different levels of the general, the victim soldier, and theNational Socialist regimewith itsprofessional murderers. Behind underlying critical voices about some of thebooks lurks theirown sense of guilt, and the author iskeen to assert the legacy of this in reactions to contemporary issues. Her reassessment of each individual writer provides new slants on theirwork, although Konsalik emerges again as different because of his crass alignment to the demands of the time ofwriting, a clear sign that awork's popularity may say nothing about its literaryvalue. There is much healthy cynicism in the analyses of theseworks, backed up by sensible awareness of thedevelopment of historical background in their reception. Situations in thenovels themselves, seen historically, also reveal incomplete awareness, sometimes deliberate, but often the result of limited perspectives. Where individual soldiers inwar can be excused theirmyopia, the blindness ofwriters and the reading public in retrospect needs correction. This study opens readers' eyes to such issues beyond superficial reception. Roderick Watt's article on B6ll is mentioned twice in thebibliography, but not Brian Murdoch's much-read edition ofRemarque's ImWesten nichts Neues (London: Methuen, I984). MELLEN UNIVERSITY, IOWA BRIAN KEITH-SMITH ...

“Leather” and the Fighting Spirit: Sport in the British Army in World War I

In 1931 General Harington declared that it was “leather” — in the shape of footballs and boxing gloves — that had won the Great War for Britain. During the First World War, sport — previously popular but unofficial in the British armed services — became formally integrated into the military system, both as “recreational training” and as an officially sanctioned form of leisure for other ranks. This article traces the process by which sport in the British Army was transformed from a mainly spontaneous and improvised pastime into a compulsory activity. It discusses the relationship between sport and war in the public school ideology of “athleticism”; examines the ways in which sport was seen to have military utility in raising morale, esprit de corps, and the “fighting spirit”; and demonstrates how the amateur model of sport came to be imposed on all British service sports as a result of the war. The article concludes that sport in World War I had real benefits both to individual soldiers and to the army as a whole.