No Release: A Phenomenological Study of Australian Army Veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq Post-Military

Abstract

This study explores the lived post-discharge experience of seven combat veterans of Australia's Middle East wars. The study has identified there is academic and popular recognition, interest in and knowledge about the process of socialisation into the military.However, there is a noticeable gap in material that explores the process of socialisation out of the military.Eighteen in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with the seven participants, some ranging over a twelve-month period. A phenomenological, interpretivist approach was taken using current literature, and input from military advisors, to help contextualise the participants' stories. Three themes emerged from the study as relevant to understanding the process of transition out of the military: the militarisation of identity, the impact of combat exposure as more deeply embedding the militarised identity and the challenges to this identity in negotiating the liminal space between military world and civilian world. The study identified that the challenges these veterans individually face on exiting the military, and the role their society has, collectively, in assisting their re-entry into the civilian world is not well understood.The study highlights that as well as understanding of the personal challenges these veterans face, the context of social recognition and response is a critical factor in their post-military adjustment in transition. Cultural dissonance, absence of place, unwitting stigma and marginalisation, and societal disavowal were characteristic of the experience of these men in their journey of transition from their military world to achieving re-assimilation in the civilian world. Civilian world accommodation and a system of repatriation to assist re-entry of combat veterans into the civilian world are identified as key aspects of reassimilation.iii