Hums 335
THE FORTRESS
The military society is a fortress built upon various concepts and principles. Living in the fortress has its advantages and disadvantages. The fortress provides early retirement, secure salary, health benefits however, there is the frequent separation from family due to deployments and training, among others. The fortress is demanding on military families. Living in the fortress, the family is subjected to the realities of been part of a military family where the mission comes first.
The warrior clan consists of soldiers and spouses who are expected to live up to a certain standard. The Soldiers have difficulty differentiating work and home roles or responsibilities. Soldiers get consumed by the roles they play at work and intentionally or unintentionally exhibit these behaviors at home.” A therapist near a large Army intelligence base talked about the families she works with who feel that they are been interrogated by their military parent” (Hall,2008). Supposed the service member is trained in the army to use interrogation techniques to arrive at the truth therefore an innocent conversation can unintentionally turn into an interrogation. Servicemembers are cautious not to say or be involved in activities that will expose his or her comrades. The devotion to secrecy often made detrimental issues such as child abuse, drug abuse, domestic violence difficult to spot and prevent. This is so because soldiers feel a sense of obligation to not ‘rat out’ each other.
The mentality that the military is a family and family protect and keep each other out of trouble often cloud the judgment of Servicemembers. For example, a spouse reports a soldier’s abusive tendencies only for the soldier’s commanding officer to indirectly caution the spouse to make no more reports to the military police(Hall,2008). Couples who need therapy prefer outside sources which are not obligated to report any “red flags’ to the...
