By Bruce Bower
LAS VEGAS — Soldiers fighting at the tip of the spear — the leading edge of combat — confront fighting, suffering and dying. But the success of those soldiers’ operations depends on a huge network of service and support personnel who themselves face considerable and often overlooked war stress, says military sociologist Wilbur Scott of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
After returning from one or more deployments, National Guard combat service personnel — including clerks, truck drivers, medics and supply officers — displayed slightly less emotional resilience and described having experienced more stress while overseas and after returning home than their comrades engaged in combat, Scott reported August 20 at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
In particular, combat service personnel cited deployment stress triggered by exposure to danger, life-threatening situations and death.
Their responses reflect the changed nature of warfare, Scott suggested. In Iraq and Afghanistan, counterinsurgency efforts have replaced conventional warfare. “While those in combat arms typically are thought of as being at the tip of the spear, this thinking applies more accurately to conventional settings rather than those encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Scott said.