Connection and Reconnection

In order to understand how British veterans and their families have experienced the transition out of the military and back into civilian life, one of the main sub-focuses of the Military Afterlives project was to understand how veterans identify themselves. Almost all of the veterans we interviewed spoke about their connection to their service, however, a wide range of views has emerged.  

Some veterans, such as Daniel*, still maintain a strong sense of military identity. While he is now a social worker, he still finds that his sense of identity is strongly linked to his military service. 

Daniel: I think it makes me realise who I am and where I’ve come from. I like the fact that I call myself a veteran. […] When you’re in the services you’re part of a community, and the military, it’s not just a job. It is a way of life and to me being a veteran is also a way of life. […] why I like to be part of being a veteran network is that I know I can also help others in some way because of the experience and knowledge I’ve got 

Interviewer: So you’re a veteran before a social worker? 

Daniel: Yes, definitely. Yes.  

Other veterans initially left their service in the past, however, they have reconnected after decades of no contact. Ray is an example of a veteran who has since reconnected and is now involved in a wide range of activities with the Royal Marines, acting as a mentor to present day Royal Marine recruits. He speaks of the common values and collective identity held by Royal Marines, and how it transcends age boundaries. Speaking about this reconnection, Ray says: 

Ray: I enjoy the interaction with the young guys. […] I’ve got back into the group with the guys, like-minded guys. That’s the biggest thing. People you don’t have to sort of push yourself upon, people that take you for who you are […] you don’t have to hide anything from anybody, you don’t have to put on a different persona for anyone, they take you for who you are, end of story, and it’s that sort of friendship you won’t find anywhere in civvy street. 

Other veterans, such as Eddie, have elaborated on their reconnection to the military as transcending social barriers such as age, and the importance of maintaining a connection to the forces despite now being a civvy. With Eddie, the importance of reconnection is paramount to tackling service-related PTSD. Combatting feelings of loneliness, isolation, and a changing identity, he finds, are helped by simply reconnecting and talking with people who have gone through the same things as he has.  

Eddie: I feel, because if you were out there with somebody at the time, it does help, if you’ve got that PTSD problem, because you can relate to what was going on. 

Other questions have arisen regarding what it means to leave the armed forces, with the lines becoming especially blurred when we spoke to reservist veterans. Gary was a Meteorologist in the Royal Navy, active duty for around 20 years from the 1980s, and then continuing his service as a reservist in the 2000s.  

Gary:  I had agreed the day I left, to join the Royal Navy Reserve Air Branch. […] And so I did this for a few years, and I was mobilised one year to go to [REDACTED], which is the first time I went to Afghanistan […]. But it’s ironic that it happened late in my career, and also while I was essentially a civilian, putting the uniform on as a reservist.  

Experiences of Reservists are often in contrast to the more mainstream understanding of what it means to leave the armed services, usually happening within a single day, marked by the walking out of a veteran’s last posting. Other female veterans we spoke to also talked about this grey area of being both an active duty servicemember, but also experiencing the changes in lifestyle, identity, and community that come with leaving the military, during maternity leave.  We will explore some of their experiences in a future Blog.

If you have had some experiences which you’d like to share, or would like to let us know your thoughts, feel free to comment below. 

*Disclaimer: Names have been changed to protect individual’s identities. 

Testing Blog Images.