Combat High

My master's project, Combat High, is a longform narrative piece exploring the phenomenon of combat attachment through the experience of Reece Searle, a former British police officer who left his job in 2023 to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.By interweaving Searle's first-hand account of what he saw on the front lines, his struggles reintegrating back into civilian life, and my own reporting on the little existing research looking into the dependency soldiers can form on combat, I delve into how prevailing attitudes surrounding PTSD overlook one of