Why Soldiers Miss War

When the air raid alarm went off, as it did several times a day, you had two choices.
Why Soldiers Miss War
A British Army soldier from the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, secures the helicopter landing strip (HLS) during operation Southern Beast in Maywand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2008. Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images
Nolan Peterson
Updated:

Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Martin parked the truck outside the concrete slabs arranged in a defensive perimeter around the tactical operations center at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan.

A layer of fine brown dust hung in the air. Out in the distance, high, snow-capped mountains ringed the combined U.S.-Afghan base, C-130 transport planes and Apache helicopter gunships roared overhead at regular intervals.

“You wanna see where the rocket landed?” he asked me.

“Yeah, of course,” I replied.

“How you doing?” he asked, knowing what was in store for me later.

“I’m fine,” I replied automatically, not knowing if it was a lie. “I’m sure it'll sink in later.”

He said nothing.

Many soldiers struggle to adjust to civilian life after returning from war. (Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
Many soldiers struggle to adjust to civilian life after returning from war. Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal
Nolan Peterson
Nolan Peterson
Author
Nolan Peterson is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an independent defense consultant based in Kyiv and Washington. A former U.S. Air Force Special Operations pilot and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Peterson has more than nine years of experience reporting from Ukraine's front lines.
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