Thank You for Hearing My Voice – Listening to Women Combat Veterans in the United States and Israeli Militaries

The military service of combat soldiers may pose many threats to their well being and often take a toll on body and mind, influencing the physical and emotional make-up of combatants and veterans. The current study aims to enhance our knowledge about the combat experiences and the challenges that female soldiers face both during and after their service. The study is based on qualitative methods and narrative analysis of in-depth semi-structured personal interviews with twenty military veterans. It aims to analyze the narratives of American and Israeli female combat soldiers regarding their military service, with emphasis on the soldiers’ descriptions, in their own words, about their difficulties, challenges, coping and successes during their service and transition to civilian life. A recurring theme in the interviews with the veterans of both militaries was the need to be heard and the fact that societies, therapists, and military institutions do not always truly listen to female veterans’ experiences and are not really interested in what actually ails them. Our research suggests that conventional methods used in research relating to veterans might at times be inadequate, because the inherent categorization might abstract, pathologize, and fragment a wide array of soldiers’ modes of post-combat being. Moreover, female veterans’ voices will not be fully heard unless we allow them to be active participants in generating knowledge about themselves.

The Landing Error Scoring System Real-Time (LESS-RT) As a Predictive Tool for Overuse Injuries and Ankle Sprain: A Historical Cohort Study.

Background:Overuse injuries and ankle sprains are commonly sustained by soldiers and athletes during conditioning programs and may have significant ramifications on both individuals and organizations. The Landing Error Scoring System (LESS), and its expedited real-time version (LESS-RT) were developed to assess risk for ACL injuries, but have never been used to assess overuse or ankle injuries which are of high priority in a military or athletic settings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate predictive value of The Landing Error Scoring System Real-Time (LESS-RT) for overuse injuries of the lower limb and ankle sprains among Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combat soldiers.Methods: A historical cohort study was conducted on 2,474 IDF combat soldiers from different service units with a wide range of fitness levels and training requirements. The predictive variable was LESS-RT score and the outcome variables were the incidence of overuse injuries and ankle sprains. Receiver operator characteristic curves were used to assess the predictive value of LESS-RT for both outcomes. Results: The AUC for overuse injuries and ankle sprains were 0.537, 95% CI 0.514-0.560 and 0.523, 95% CI 0.491-0.556 respectively. Conclusions:The results of this study shows no predictive value of LESS-RT score for both overuse injuries of the lower limb and ankle sprains.

Mental Health Symptoms Are Associated With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury History in Active Special Operations Forces (SOF) Combat and Combat Support Soldiers

Introduction Special Operations Forces (SOF) combat arms and combat support Soldiers are at risk for impaired mental health, such as mood- and stress-related disorders, due to operational and training demands. Additionally, these individuals experience high risk for sustaining mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). These mTBIs have also been linked to negative psychological outcomes, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms. Studying mental illnesses and their related symptoms alone does not fully address mental health, which may be better understood by 2 separate but overlapping continua measuring both mental illness and subjective well-being (ie, emotional, psychological, and social well-being). Due to the lack of research in this area, current mental health symptoms in active SOF combat Soldiers in relation to mTBI warrants investigation. Materials and Methods In this study, 113 SOF combat and combat support Soldiers completed self-report psychological and mTBI history measures during an in-person laboratory setting. These psychometric measures included (1) psychological distress (Brief Symptom Inventory 18), (2) anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item), (3) posttraumatic stress (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5), (4) somatization (Patient Health Questionnaire-15), and (5) subjective well-being (Mental Health Continuum Short Form). Results On average, SOF combat Soldiers endorsed moderate well-being and low psychological distress, somatization, posttraumatic stress, and anxiety. Most SOF combat Soldiers had sustained 1 or more mTBI. We observed mTBI history had significant effects on each dependent variable in the expected directions. History of more mTBIs, controlling for age, was associated with lower subjective well-being as well as higher psychological distress, somatization, posttraumatic stress, and anxiety symptoms. Conclusion Although SOF combat Soldiers reported relatively adaptive mental health symptoms across participants, there was considerable variance in the measures reported. Some of the variance in mental health symptoms was accounted for by mTBI history while controlling for age, with reporting higher numbers of lifetime mTBIs and older age being associated with worse mental health symptoms. Longitudinal investigations into these associations and their impact on Soldier performance is warranted.

Participation in Counterinsurgency

This chapter begins with a description of Aviv Kochavi, who served as a commander in a paratrooper unit at the height of the Second Intifada. It talks about Aviv's strict and demanding command style that soldiers often label a “hard head.” The chapter shows how the military first instills and then enforces a set of norms that distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate violence based on the extent to which it serves organizational goals. It analyzes three analytically distinct categories of violence taken from the perspective of deployed combat soldiers: strategic, entrepreneurial, and opportunistic. It also points out how the categories of violence differ on a number of dimensions and highlights the beneficiary of the violence.