Heal and Serve

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan can be seen as a laboratory for examining the Soviet construction of masculinity during the last decade of the USSR. Focusing on male Soviet military doctors as individuals, this article aims to present how these doctors constructed their virile presentation of self in a war situation and how they managed their position within the military community. Taking a pragmatic historical approach, the article considers the doctors through their interactions with both women and men, examining gendered practices such as “protecting weak people,” “asserting authority,” “expressing emotions (or not),” and “impressing others.” It offers a case study for the analysis of one of the many forms of Soviet military masculinity under late socialism and its place in Soviet society.

‘A large population, famous for their military qualities’: Londoners at war, c. 1000–1200

The scholarship of high medieval warfare tends not to emphasize the contribution made by urban communities, regarding cities as the passive objects of military campaigning. This article shows that the inhabitants of medieval London, however, had emerged as an organized military community from an early date, and were regarded by contemporaries as unusually disciplined, effective, fighters.

Perceptions of family acceptance into the military community among U.S. LGBT service members: A mixed-methods study

Lay Summary There are approximately 16,000 families of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) service members in the U.S. military, but very little is known about how accepted they feel in the communities in which they live. This study begins to address this question by considering the perspectives of LGBT service members, which they shared both in response to an online survey and in interviews. Findings suggest that many service members believe their spouses and families are accepted by their chain of command. However, a smaller but important group continued to express concerns about their family being accepted in their military community. Many service members appear concerned that family services available to them through the military are not appropriate for LGBT families. Altogether, this article highlights the need for more research to understand the well-being and needs of this group.

Knowledge and Attitudes of Lifestyle Medicine–Based Care in a Military Community

ABSTRACT Introduction The Department of Defense spends more than $3 billion annually on medical costs of lifestyle-related morbidity. Military service members and veterans engage in unhealthy behaviors at a higher rate than the civilian population. Lifestyle medicine may mitigate lifestyle-related chronic diseases and increase medical readiness in the U.S. Military. However, patients’ perspectives in a military community regarding a lifestyle medicine–based approach to health care have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of and interest in lifestyle medicine–based care within a military community. Materials and Methods Following exempt study determination from the Madigan Army Medical Center Human Protections Office (Reference No. 220092), a prospective, cross-sectional, mixed-methods survey study was conducted from September 2020 to January 2021. Volunteer subjects, including active duty service members, National Guard/Reserves service members, and military dependents, were recruited to complete the anonymous survey while seeking care at five military clinics on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. The study’s outcome measures were the overall level of awareness of lifestyle medicine, ranked level of importance of seven core lifestyle domains, the level of interest in seeking care from a lifestyle medicine practitioner, and the preferred lifestyle medicine care delivery setting. Kruskal–Wallis analyses of variance were conducted for categorical outcome variables. Mean composite scores were calculated for lifestyle domain rankings. Results A total of 623 respondents completed the survey with a 62.3% response rate. The majority of respondents (89.7%) lacked definitive knowledge of the field of lifestyle medicine. Food/nutrition and sleep were ranked the highest of all lifestyle domains to include in a healthcare approach in the overall sample and across all subgroups. Quitting smoking and alcohol use were ranked the lowest of importance overall and across all subgroups. The majority of respondents (65.7%) reported it was extremely or very important that lifestyle is part of the healthcare discussion with their provider. Of 614 responses, 77.6% of respondents expressed interest in a lifestyle medicine–based approach to health care, with 40.1% indicating they were extremely or very interested in this approach. A direct correlation was noted between education levels and level of interest in lifestyle medicine. Many respondents selected their primary care provider (34.6%) or a lifestyle medicine practitioner embedded in their primary care clinic (26.1%) as their preferred method of lifestyle medicine provision. A higher smoking rate was demonstrated in service members in combat arms occupational specialties. Conclusions Despite an overall low level of awareness of lifestyle medicine, most respondents expressed interest in a lifestyle medicine approach to health care, with food/nutrition and sleep ranked as the most important domains. Lower levels of education may be a potential barrier to patient willingness to engage in lifestyle medicine care. Service members in combat arms occupational specialties may represent a potential target population for smoking cessation interventions. Further research with a larger sample more proportionately inclusive of all military service branches is needed.

Archetype Profiles of Military Spouses in Australia – Identifying Perfect Partners and Mean Girls

Military spouses are situated at the junction of the military and civilian worlds. They provide necessary support to military strategic and operational objectives and are also expected to perform a traditional spousal role of the ‘good’ military wife. This article demonstrates the existence of strong military partner archetypes which guide military community norms and expectations of spousal behaviour. In 14 qualitative interviews and five focus groups with Australian military partners, participants revealed many different, yet firm, sentiments related to identity, including fierce independence; a sense of belonging; self-reliance; a desire to help others; belief in fairness and pragmatism. The archetypes outlined in this article shape how partners see their role, and how they interact with other non-military partners and the military organization. This research delivers insights into optimizing military partner services to better support spouses through deployment, relocation and other military experiences.

Risk Factors for Complicated Grief in the Military Community

Death, grief, and loss have always been a part of the military community. Historically, research on grief in the military has focused on the impact of combat operations and deployment separations on the grief experience of service members and loved ones. However, as the transient nature of military life and the dangers of military service exist outside of combat operations and military deployments, it is important to examine how grief may impact the military community in times of peace as well as war. The purpose of this commentary is to discuss the components of the military community that place its members at a higher risk of experiencing complicated grief.

York's ‘African-style’ Severan Pottery Reconsidered

ABSTRACT This article examines the phenomenon of so-called North African-style pottery made in early third-century York. The pottery, which was produced in significant quantities in late Ebor ware, is strikingly different from vessels in circulation in Roman Britain and the north-west provinces – so much so that the late Vivien Swan argued that it was ‘made by Africans for the use of Africans’. The present study reassesses the evidence of ceramic genealogical influences, production waste, fabric supply, consumption patterns and contextual finds associations. The results shed new light on the manufacture and use of late Ebor ware by York's military community, qualifying claims made about the repertoire's links with novel culinary practices, cultural diversity and the unique historical circumstances of Severan York.

An individual nickname in Russia: Modern understanding

This article considers an individual nickname from the point of view of the independence of its allocation, position in the anthroponymic field in relation to other peripheral naming conventions, the history of study, the role in informal communication, as well as cognitive features. The quoted theoretical material is illustrated by examples of nicknames that are actively used in the military community.

Janowitz and Huntington—Better Together: A Response

Suzanne Nielsen and Hugh Liebert recently published “The Continuing Relevance of Morris Janowitz’s The Professional Soldier for the Education of Officers” in which they argued that officer education is too enamored with Samuel Huntington’s aging theory of civil–military relations from Soldier and the State. Huntington’s ideal of objective control grants senior military advisors autonomy within their professional sphere, and it best ensures that unvarnished military expertise survives politically charged national security decision making processes intact, regardless of which party controls the White House. While these features explain Huntington’s traditional popularity with the military, Nielsen and Liebert warn that Huntington’s separation between military and civilian matters in theory engenders wishful thinking in practice, so much so that officers neglect, to the detriment of national policy, Morris Janowitz, Huntington’s cofounder of the modern study of civil–military relations. However, the civil–military community should reconsider banishing Huntington in order to appreciate Janowitz.

Using Social Media to Organize a Marginalized Community

Potential leaders within marginalized communities find it difficult to connect, learn, strategize, and support one another and build a cohesive community capable of effecting social change. This research contributes to filling a gap in empirical research on effective approaches to employing social media tools to organize and engage in social movements. The research builds on earlier studies of marginalized communities and social media to organize and engages in social movements by applying a case study design to assess how the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) military community employed social media to organize and advocate for inclusion and end discrimination within the U.S. armed forces. Seventeen findings were identified that describe key ways the LGBT military community employed these tools to organize, identify leaders and their roles, and how online behavior affected offline advocacy.