Page 305 - Total War on PTSD Final

“I was there” a defining feature, an identity that separates the us and the them (Hynes, 2001). The battlefield is an alternative universe wherein killing and dying are commonplace and survival is a normal mode of existence.
The bond between soldiers is acquired also via a discursive channel, as common terms change their meanings. As soldiers undergo war together, they learn anew, and more forcefully than ever, the meaning of comradeship, solidarity, courage, loyalty, trust, reciprocity, interdependence, sacrifice and loss. These “concepts” no longer designate for them what they meant prior to the war, what they mean still to civilians. Indeed, when civilians speak of such things, when they enunciate these words, or when they idly mention names of people and places that have sustained the dire toll of war, Veterans might feel that these have been uttered in vain.
More fundamentally, the military binds soldiers by employing a unique military lingo, the discourse that becomes the bread and butter of warriors’ discursive interchange: codenames, nicknames, acronyms, locations, military slang and common jokes, these are all embedded in soldiers’ everyday discursive exchange. These become part of the defining features of the Vet’s world. Nevertheless, this discursive practice also contributes to the Veteran’s isolation upon departure from that world. As former U.S Army Intelligence officer and Veteran of the Gulf War, Ray Starmann notes,
How do you talk to civilians about “fire for effect” or “grid 7310” or “shake and bake” or “frag orders” or “10 days and a wake up” or a thousand and one other terms that are mystifying to the real world? You can't. (Starmann, 2015).
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