Churn: Mobilization–demobilization and the fungibility of American military life

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 194-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken MacLeish
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
American Military ◽  
Military Recruiting ◽  
Personnel Practices ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Community ◽  
Post Traumatic

This article posits an analytic of mobilization–demobilization that attends to the instrumentalization and fungibility of military lives as both a primary source of embodied war-related harm and an undertheorized logic of the US war-making apparatus. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among post-9/11 military veterans in a US military community, the article explores mobilization–demobilization across three registers. First, I contrast it with dominant scholarly framings of ‘transition’, ‘reintegration’, and ‘militarization’, terms that analytically compartmentalize war in space and time. Second, I show how mobilization–demobilization drives the uptake and release of military labor and accounts for continuities between war violence and ‘war-like’ domestic political relations in 20th- and 21st-century US military recruiting, welfare, and personnel practices. Finally, I describe the trajectory of one veteran caught up in some elements of mobilization–demobilization, including injury, post-traumatic stress, substance use, and law-breaking, which are structured by the military’s management of his labor. These dynamics demonstrate crucial empirical links between the domestic and global faces of US war-making, and between war and nominally non-war domains.

Operation Thin Mint: Popular Geopolitics of Care and Post-9/11 Girlhood

Young ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Goerisch
Keyword(s):  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Girl Scouts ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
American Military ◽  
The Public ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
The Us ◽  
Girl Scout

In response to the events of 9/11, the Girl Scouts of San Diego created a service programme within the annual Girl Scout cookie sale called Operation Thin Mint, which sends cookies to soldiers serving overseas. Representations of American patriotism and national identity are featured prominently throughout the cookie sale as girls come to embody America’s role in overseas military conflicts, an embodiment of everyday geopolitical processes that frame the US military as protector of American innocence, ideals and values. Scouts come to engage with political and economic systems that position them beyond their communities as they ‘sell the nation’ to consumers as a form of care, blurring the boundaries between the public and private spheres as well as the local and global. Based on an in-depth ethnographic study on the Girl Scout cookie sale, this article will examine the complex gendered relationship between the American military, girls’ bodies and care.

A Study of Selected Ethnic Affiliations in the Development of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Other Psychopathology After a Terrorist Bombing in Nairobi, Kenya

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-365
Author(s):  
Carol S. North ◽  
Tatiana Dvorkina ◽  
Samuel Thielman ◽  
Betty Pfefferbaum ◽  
Pushpa Narayanan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Total N ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Terrorist Bombing

AbstractObjectivesDespite the frequency of disasters in Africa, almost nothing is known about ethnic affiliations in relation to psychopathology after such incidents. This study examined the mental health outcomes of members of 7 major ethnic groups exposed to the 1998 terrorist bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.MethodsApproximately 8 to 10 months after the disaster, 229 civilian employees, 99 locally engaged staff workers of the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development, and 64 workers of the Kenyan Red Cross Society (total N=392) were assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition). Additional data were gathered on demographic characteristics, disaster exposures and injuries, and ethnic affiliations.ResultsDisaster-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was significantly less prevalent among members of the Kikuyu group (28%) and post-disaster major depression was significantly more prevalent among members of the Meru group (64%), compared with all others in the sample. Preexisting psychopathology and disaster injury were independently associated with bombing-related psychopathology.ConclusionsFurther study of disaster-related psychopathology in relation to African ethnic affiliations is needed to better understand these associations and to assist in planning resources and interventions for African disaster survivors. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018; 12: 360–365)

scholarly journals Stigmatized Love, Boundary Making and the Heroic Love Myth: How Filipina Women Construct Their Relationships with American Military Men

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Reyes;Reyes
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
American Military ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Marriage Migrants ◽  
Boundary Making

This chapter provides an empirical examination of how Filipina women construct their intimate relationships with US military men, and compares marriage migrants with those ‘left behind’ when the US military withdrew from their permanent bases in the Philippines. First, I’ll situate the case in theories on interracial love and marriage. Second, I outline my data and analytic approach. Following this, I focus on my findings. I show how the women talked about the base through the lens of childhood nostalgia. This is important to understand to contextualize their views of US servicemen and provide the backdrop from which these relationships were formed. Next, I show how they draw on love myths to frame their relationships and draw symbolic boundaries around their own relationship and others that may seem similar. Finally, I discuss how they further embraced their familial roles of wife and mother. Being legally or informally married to a US serviceman shapes a woman’s role in her family. Their childhood memories and current conceptions of motherhood and as a wife are interconnected with how they see their relationships with these men.

Defense 101

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. O'Hanlon
Keyword(s):  
Department Of Defense ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
American Military ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of

This book, a concise primer for understanding the US defense budget ($700 billion plus) and rapidly changing military technologies, provides a deeply informed yet accessible analysis of American military power. After an introduction which surveys today's international security environment, provides a brief sketch of the history of the US military, its command structure, the organization of its three million personnel, and a review of its domestic basing and global reach, the book provides in-depth coverage of four critical areas in military affairs. For policy makers and experts, military professionals, students, and citizens alike, the book helps make sense of the US Department of Defense, the basics of war and the future of armed conflict, and the most important characteristics of the American military.

America and the Garrison Stadium

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Paul Vasquez
Keyword(s):  
National Collegiate Athletic Association ◽  
College Football ◽  
World War ◽  
American Military ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Institutions ◽  
Service Academies ◽  
Second World

American military institutions importantly shaped the popular sport of college football. From support at its two oldest service academies, interest in football spread through military units across the country with military actors involved in the formation of the country’s first collegiate athletic conference and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Subsequently, the US military functioned as an agent of authoritative diffusion, fostering interest in college football after the First World War. Furthermore, military institutions, including the draft, affected not only which team would be most successful during the Second World War but also how civilians would play the game. These effects call to mind Charles Tilly’s work on state formation and security-driven resource extraction as well as Harold Lasswell’s garrison state idea.

scholarly journals An Engaging Remembrance: A Review of the American Battle Monuments Commission Website

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Santose
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Law ◽  
American Military ◽  
War Department ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The Us ◽  
Monuments And Memorials

Over 100,000 US military personnel died during World War I, with many of these deaths occurring directly on foreign battlefields. Public Law 389, enacted by the 66th Congress, as well as Public Law 360, enacted by the 80th Congress, allowed for a family’s repatriation of soldier remains to the United States for burial in a national or private cemetery. In 1919, however, the US War Department decided to establish permanent American military cemeteries in Europe and offered this option as an alternative to repatriation. To persuade family members to consent, the War Department needed to ensure these cemeteries were impressive and significant symbols of the American sacrifice on foreign soil; therefore, the War Department detailed a group of Army officers to serve as the Battle Monuments Board in 1921. Two years later, on March 4, 1923, Congress passed the Act for the Creation of an American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), which established one authoritative organization under Title 36 of the United States Code to control the construction of monuments and memorials to the American military in foreign countries.

scholarly journals Baseline self reported functional health and vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder after combat deployment: prospective US military cohort study

BMJ ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 338 (apr16 2) ◽  
pp. b1273-b1273 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. LeardMann ◽  
T. C. Smith ◽  
B. Smith ◽  
T. S. Wells ◽  
M. A. K. Ryan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Functional Health ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Combat Deployment

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Dava Guerin ◽  
Terry Bivens
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Rice Paddies ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Us Army ◽  
The North ◽  
Long Line ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post Traumatic

THE EAGLE ON MY ARM is the story of Patrick Bradley, an engaging and tenacious seventy-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War. Like many of his fellow servicemen, he still bears that invisible yet pernicious wound of war even after half a century—post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The latest in a long line of military men in the Bradley family, Patrick joined the US Army at age eighteen and was deployed to Vietnam. As a young Green Beret lieutenant, he was put in charge of a mission to infiltrate enemy lines and locate POW camps for possible rescue. It was harrowing work, often involving long stretches of survival in the jungle and, inevitably, the grisly deaths of many North Vietnamese, as well as most of his own men. Out of his original team of sixteen, only three would survive, and two of them would die by suicide within a few years. What happened in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam—the brutal acts he committed and those the North Vietnamese inflicted on his men—torture him to this day....

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