Lived Experiences of Reintegration for Afghanistan Veterans Who Were Army Combat Medics

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences, strengths, and challenges of reintegrating into civilian life for GWOT Army veterans who were medics. Three veterans completed in-depth interviews about their reintegration experiences. Results were organized into domains, core ideas, and categories. This study added to the existing literature on both combat medics and military transitions and suggests new areas of future research on combat medics and their transitions post-military. Participants expressed feeling nervous about their reintegration, primarily due to their familiarity with the structured military lifestyle, anxiety regarding how much or little their family would need them, and the challenge of finding a new purpose in their civilian life. These veterans tended to avoid discussing deeper emotions, often providing surface-level responses when prompted about their emotional experience. This avoidance of emotional expression emerged as a key finding, suggesting that combat medics’ military experience may encourage the suppression of emotions as a coping mechanism. A novel finding not previously highlighted in previous literature was the explanation of a distinct combat medic “personality,” which participants described as a bonding mechanism among medics but also a source of alienation when interacting with others outside of the medic population. Every participant explained how combat medics have a “dark sense of humor” and that they are often not understood by others. Therefore, they actively suppressed that part of their personality after they left the military and felt like they were not able to fully be themselves anywhere. A particular strength that was emphasized by all participants was their ability to remain calm under pressure, particularly in their current civilian careers. These reports added to existing literature on Army veterans in general as well as the literature on combat medics. The results of this study strengthened current understanding of military reintegration while also providing a more nuanced view of the lived experiences of veterans who were combat medics during their reintegration into the civilian world. These results were used to provide recommendations for current mental health and medical providers to be better able to connect with and help these people when they work with them. Recommendations include targeted group programming through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare to help support veterans during their initial transition period following their discharge from the military. There are also operational recommendations that could be implemented at a higher level such as edits to manualized treatment protocols or policy changes that would benefit every military occupational specialty (MOS), not just combat medics. There are also community-level recommendations to help the family and friends of veterans better support those veterans. Research on combat medics and their reintegration should continue to explore the unique aspects of this group of veterans so that providers can better understand their experiences, and therefore more effectively help them if they should need help.