The Professor Goes to War

This chapter describes the experiences of a military social worker deployed to Iraq with a combat stress unit, as well as her predeployment and postdeployment experiences. As a civilian, the author is a professor. She explores how deployment affected her academic career and her own overall process of readjustment to civilian life. She describes her main duties and activities as the only professional mental health provider and combat stress team prevention leader at the camp in southern Iraq where she was assigned. The author reflects on early life experiences that motivated her to choose social work as a profession. In terms of joining the military, the author considers how her personal travels as well as employment with U.S. Army Intelligence in Europe, during the Cold War era, contributed to her motivation to join the Army Reserves.

The Life of a Combat Social Worker

Chapter 1 gives the reader a tour—a kind of ride-a-long or a kind of “see-what-I-see” experience. Much of the chapter is about the combat part of combat social work: What does social work look like outside the wire, downrange, or in combat or other hostile and dangerous battles or threats. This chapter will enable the reader to appreciate the role and experiences of combat social workers, as captured in later autobiographical chapters. However, deployments are time-limited (7–15 months, as a rule), and most of the time spent as a military social worker is in garrison (i.e., base camp with offices, often a behavioral health clinic or the social work department at a military hospital). This is where and how most members of the military receive their mental health treatment—conducted by military social workers. This is discussed in Chapter 2.

Introduction

Social workers have a long, proud history of service in most branches of the United States military, often as commissioned officers with graduate practice degrees (Daley, 2003). Samuel Washington (1957), an active duty social worker, was the first to discuss the history and function of social work in military service. He noted that in 1945 social work was fully integrated as a separate specialty in the U.S. military and “its subsequent development to its present level [i.e., 1957] have been recognized as instrumental in maintaining and conserving the defense strength of its country” (p. 1)....

Combat Social Work in Afghanistan, 2009–2010

This chapter focuses on values and how they are impacted by war experiences. The author examines his own experiences as he commanded a combat stress control detachment during a major troop surge. Using an autobiographical approach, the author discusses how engrained personal values impacted his deployment and command experience, both positively and negatively. Lessons learned and case examples from this deployment experience are shared as a way to identify key aspects of military culture and the unique challenges that are faced in deployed environments. Ethical issues faced as a deployed social worker are considered along with some unique tensions that can exist between service branches while attempting to support service members struggling with combat operational stress. Finally, specific leadership lessons are shared when leading a team of mental health professionals who are dealing with stress and secondary trauma of their own.

Deployment of a Social Worker

In this chapter, the author discusses adaptability as the most valuable quality for a social worker. Reflecting on his career, the author discusses his ability to adjust to any situation and connect with different types of people. That skill has translated well for him in his career. He especially focuses on his experiences as a combat social worker during deployment, since he used every social work skill to be effective in this setting. He discusses the many challenges and the lessons he learned from being a combat social worker. He notes, for example, that mental health is not well-received in the military, especially within certain combat-focused units. He describes how it requires a lot of outreach and integration with members to help develop rapport and reduce stigma. One lesson learned: playing ping-pong seemed to be one of the popular activities among other strategies used to build relations within units while doing outreach.

Combat Social Work in Vietnam, 1968–1969

This chapter presents combat social work in the U.S. Vietnam war. The author discusses his military career, the special challenges and lessons from his year-long tour of duty and a combat social worker’s view of the realities on the ground. This chapter provides a case study of how behavioral health practitioners in-country were confronted with what the author refers to as the psychiatric paradox—Was a psychiatric casualty “too sane” to be medially evacuated or “too sick” to be returned to duty?—coupled with significant pressure to return psych casualties to duty. The author describes his personal experiences and how he came home changed and interested in helping fellow combat veterans. He describes the lessons learned from his further mental health services to hundreds of war veterans postwar and the pervasive impact of war on those exposed to war, directly or indirectly, and their long-term recovery.

Combat Social Work at Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam, Afghanistan

This chapter includes a description of the author’s training and experience in the Iowa Army National Guard that prepared him for his deployment to Afghanistan. The author explains: How, at age 57, he decided to join the Iowa Army National Guard, with the goal of doing something about the huge problem: increasing numbers of military service related suicides. He discusses his experience of going through the Officer’s Basic Leadership Course to celebrating his 60th birthday but shortly afterwards he was sent to Afghanistan. He describes his year there as providing combat social work services in a setting where at any time, you could be subject to a rocket or motor attack. Among the challenges leading to lessons learned was establishing trust among his clients. All were reluctant to talk with a “shrink.” An especially moving section of his chapter was about conducting a critical incident debriefing after a mass casualty event.

Triumph Over Adversity

Like other chapters, the author takes the reader on a journey of a combat social worker beginning in his childhood as the son of a Vietnam veteran with severe PTSD. With the valuable lessons learned from his father’s mental health treatment journey with the help of the early 1980s Vet Centers. The author shares his life experiences and lessons gleaned from a career as a trauma therapist and finally a 16-year career as an Army social worker, including lessons from Iraq combat tour and the Army’s comprehensive soldier fitness program. Research-based theories, books, and interventions are described critical to healing PTSD and empowering the holistic well-being of today’s service members. The author, currently an Army lieutenant colonel behavioral health officer concludes with a call for reinforcements due to increasing attrition of combat social workers, and the corresponding traits and mindset required for this dynamic career opportunity in today’s military mental health community.

Navy Combat Social Worker

In this chapter the author discusses how Navy social workers have experienced their wars—caring for both sailors and marines and expands on previous Navy social work. This former Navy combat social worker takes the reader through her journey leading up to her active-duty service and the years following. She currently serves her country as a Veterans Affairs social worker with combat veterans or, as she puts it, “my people.” The author shares her personal experiences and notes the postwar adjustments that worked out despite reminders of war and the emotional adjustments. The author provides a detailed account of her postwar adaptation that will be helpful to anyone who works with war veterans and first responders.

Combat Social Work in Afghanistan, 2010–2011

This chapter presents an interview with a combat social worker who shares his experience of deployment to Afghanistan, initially assigned to the 344th Combat Support Hospital, U.S. Army Reserve. In Afghanistan, the author was attached to the Medical Combat Stress Control Detachment 1 and forward deployed as a combat social worker to Forward Operating Base Gardez. The author breaks down deployment into phases and describes the operational stress associated with each phase for deployed personnel and their families. As a result of their service, military personnel and their families undergo interpersonal and cultural transformations, including the development of profound relationships. This chapter points out the effects of loneliness, social isolation, and cultural disconnect on members of the military community as they navigate civilian society. The author offers lessons learned to social workers practicing with members of the military community, including preventing problems before they occur and viewing members of the military community through a sociocultural lens.