Living outside the Wire: toward a Transpersonal Resilience Approach for Oif/oef Veterans Transitioning to Civilian Life

Combat Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan involve hazardous front-line missions and attendant combat stress. Being ‘‘outside the wire’’ describes the danger zone; i.e., deployment outside the military base. Returning to civilian life, with no ‘‘platoon’’ to serve as a psychological safety net, veterans may once again experience– in a different sense–living ‘‘outside the wire.’’ Moreover, experiencing–or seeking help for– psychological distress is often perceived as weakness. How do we help these warriors maintain emotional, spiritual, in addition to physical, well-being ‘‘outside the wire’’? Combat experiences, if placed within a meaningful context, carry the potential to promote spiritual and emotional growth. As Frankl observed, war experiences hit the core of existential meaning, but even in great sorrow and suffering there is meaning. Framed by Frankl’s work, an approach for promoting resilience in returning veterans is presented that is meaning based and transpersonal in focus. Recent combat operations in two theatres, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan, involve military ground combat and hazardous security duty. Each base has exit and entry control points (E.C.P.s). Exiting these lines of departures (L.O.D.s) on a designated mission represents entry into the danger zone, as it is an ‘‘asymmetrical battlefield;’’ i.e., without an established front line. Another significant danger involves traveling the established main supply routes (M.S.R.s) or any road where one could experience injury or fatality related to I.E.D.s (improvised explosive devices) or V.B.E.D.s (vehicle borne explosive devices). The colloquial terminology by military personnel in the field to describe deployment outside of the military base is that of being ‘‘outside the wire.’’ [email protected] NOTE: As this article went to press a Special issue on Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was published in the American Psychologist, 2011 January, 66(1). Additional articles on the Army’s program may be found there. Copyright ’ 2010 Transpersonal Institute The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2010, Vol. 42, No. 2 209 The combination of an asymmetrical battlefield, constant threat of unseen I.E.D.s, and the sporadic mortar and rocket fire into the relatively ‘‘safe’’ military bases have created a war with unique and persistent stressors on its combatants who often bond together for sustenance. These close bonds that develop among combatants may never be replicated again. War veterans frequently describe having no closer friend than those with whom they served in combat. This bond arises out of the experience of reliance upon others for safety and protection, experiencing similar war-related stressors, and having a common, transcendent goal—a purpose larger than themselves that motivates them. This key concept of experiencing a greater sense of Self may also serve as a therapeutic intervention for some returning veterans. Transitioning from the combat zone to civilian life, one may once again experience–in a different sense–living ‘‘outside the wire.’’ The post-deployment return can be paradoxically unsettling, psychologically turbulent, and driven by losses; at minimum, camaraderie of those who understand and the adrenaline charged intensity associated with dangerous missions. In civilian life war zone memories may become prominent in both their conscious and sleeping states, leading to a myriad of reactions (e.g., nightmares, anxiety, social isolation and so forth). An equally traumatic loss, however, and one upon which we focus in a transpersonal sense is the loss of a compelling and life-changing purpose of serving a cause larger than themselves. This element of motivation, beyond one’s own separate self sense, is what Viktor Frankl repeatedly observed in those who tended to survive the concentration camp experience. TOWARD A TRANSPERSONAL RESILIENCE APPROACH: VIKTOR FRANKL