the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I have absolutely no problem with what Patton said
what i said does not negate what he said in any way

Snipers have used this tactic to maim and injure
and wait for rescuers to appear, and then increase their kills
in war, if you become predictable, you have lost the initiative
In Black Hawk Down, the militia used RPG with proximity fuses
to defeat US heliborne operation

you become predictable, and the enemy devise a tactic that can
defeat you.

Since Mogadishu, i have seen it repeated
Recently, Operation Red Wing.
You need to defeat that RPG with proximity fuse

It is strange that post battle experience can manifest (or at all)
in different individual. Some seems to be not affected by it at all;
while others are deeply and fundamentally altered to a stage that
they are not able to function in normal society.

if anyone has published psych research that sheds light on this
phenomena, and factors that can help military personnel become
more insulated against the effects of war; please share .
Thanks and cheers.

Who has problems and who doesn't is always a crapshoot.

The few statistics kept by the DoD seem conclusive though. Women who experience combat have a 60% chance of developing PTSD, left handed men 20% and right handed men 10%. I'm not sure what the name of the study is, but those were the numbers briefed at the Pentagon when I worked there and everyone regardless of service seemed to agree on them.

Meditation appears to have a prophylactic effect if undertaken seriously before engaging in killing. That is probably why it was ubiquitous in traditional warrior type professions. It seems to help afterwards to a degree, but the effect is much more pronounced if undertaken before hand.

Out of my friends who had a serious meditative practice before taking up warfighting, no one developed PTSD. Most have more issues with what they were not allowed to do than what they did in this context.

I've never seen women who engaged in killing up close come away clean. Not once.

As for the left handed/right handed thing that is an interesting statistic and I have no idea how they figured that out as it is not recorded in any medical files I'm familiar with.

For those interested in studies

The risk factor literature shows that not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will develop PTSD. Therefore, it has become increasingly accepted that individual vulnerability factors contribute to the development of PTSD beyond the traumatic event itself [18]. In past several decades, a number of studies have focused on combat-related PTSD and have identified individual and social risk factors, these risk factors include being younger at the time of the trauma, being female, being of a racial minority, being of a lower socioeconomic status (SES), and lack of social support [19, 20].

.Gender was also a predictor in our meta-analysis; females were more likely to experience PTSD following combat than were males. This finding supports research conducted among Army soldiers deployed to combat zones, where PTSD symptoms were found to be more common among women than in studies that compared men and women [35, 71].

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4368749/

In the infantry units I was assigned to, I don't see how it would be possible for a woman to be assigned to the units. Maybe things have changed. The Physicality and mentality of grunts in grunt units it's quite different.

Even then there are a lot of predictors and traits associated with people who are more susceptible to PTSD then others.

Do agree that those with strong moral religious convictions or meditative practices tend to be better off than those without.

windwalker wrote:For many it's after the mission is over that's the hardest part.

That was then. Let it go.

Thanks for sharing!

Klonk, i think that's the point.
There are some so deeply affected by it that they are not able to

klonk wrote:

windwalker wrote:For many it's after the mission is over that's the hardest part.

That was then. Let it go.

Why don't those here let go of what they call martial arts as a lifelong practice. This is now.

Witten by Mike, his observations may resonate with some here.

Focusing Emptiness, is about how the significant choices we make in life can be colored by the trauma we experience in childhood.

It is about how we split off our most vulnerable parts, and how these parts can sometimes fall into a fantasy world where real world choices become entangled with the fantasy world designed to protect us.

http://focusingemptiness.com/index.php/about-the-book

As some have already mentioned there are aspects of military life that have no equal in civilian life.

For some an adventure, others a truma, all part of defining moments for those that served of who we are or have come to be.