Warrior without a war faces challenges at home

Warrior without a war faces challenges at home
USA Today
Gregg Zoroya
November 3, 2013

Mike Compton is one of America's most elite warriors. The problem is, he no longer has a war to fight. He is among an estimated 1.2 million service members who will begin transitioning out of the military in the next four years as combat ends and the military is downsized.

CAMP LEJEUNE N.C. -- Mike Compton is one of America's elite warriors, except he no longer has a war.

"It feels great," he says, "almost like a drug you don't want to give up."

"Home for me was Afghanistan in the middle of a firefight," says the 29-year-old married father of two, echoing sentiments of other special "operators" who achieved a hard-earned place at the tip of America's fighting spear.

With American combat over in Iraq and U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan next year, surveys show a war-weary public eager for 12 years of fighting to go away.

But for a core group in uniform who spent their adult lives in endless cycles of training and battle, who -- military psychiatrists say -- are now better adapted emotionally to combat than being at home, re-adjustment to a life of peace will be challenging.

They are among an estimated 1.2 million service members who will begin transitioning out of the military in the next four years as combat ends and the military is downsized.

"It's almost like an existential crisis," says Delight Thompson, a neuropsychologist who treats members of the Marine Special Operations Command here. The unit is where Compton earned respect in 2009 for going back into battle even after suffering a brain-jarring head wound from gunfire in Afghanistan.

"You're having to kind of find yourself again," Thompson says about war winding down for these troops, "develop this new identity. And a key part of that is finding what your new purpose is in life."
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