2
combine this with existing program information, information on recent legislative changes, and
existing research gathered via a literature review focused on readiness for the shift to civilian life
to describe the current transition experience and underscore gaps in the existing process. The
literature review involved an extensive search of peer-reviewed journals, scientific sources, and
scholarly articles, with an emphasis on sources that cover the military-to-civilian transition,
integration and reintegration into civilian social structures, transition stress, community
reintegration and support structures, identity and military culture, engagement of service
members (SMs) and veterans, and user-oriented design. Many of the studies reviewed took a
qualitative data-gathering approach that involved interviewing small sets of recently transitioned
SMs and veterans to gather direct information about experiences and insights into areas for
further research with expanded populations. In addition to explorations of transition within the
United States, the literature review included research and studies conducted with transitioning
members of the Canadian military and peacekeeping forces, as the Life After Service Survey
(LASS) program
5
provides valuable insight on the transition process generally. The review
particularly emphasized literature pertaining to SMs and veterans who serve or have served post-
9/11, as these veterans became civilians relatively recently, and their experiences allow a timely
look at the transition process. The paper concludes with a call for future research to help fill
identified gaps.
Veteran Identity and Variation
When SMs become veterans, the transition from military to civilian life often brings about a
significant shift in the individual’s identity.
6,7,8,9,10,11
This identity transition is accompanied by
other changes, such as moving, returning to school, or finding a new job. As a result, veterans
can suffer from an accumulation of changes, which adds stress. Although these identity shifts are
non-normative for civilians who never served in the military, they are not particularly out of the
ordinary, and are even normative, for veterans, all of whom went through this transitional phase
to become veterans. Specifically, 27% of veterans state that they struggled with re-entry into
civilian life; this number jumps to 44% when the focus is on post-9/11 veterans.
12
The identity shift for veterans is a known issue. Serving as a deployed Soldier is a vastly
different role than being a veteran, a parent, a spouse, and/or someone’s child living at
home.
13,14,10,11
The change has been referred to as prompting “reverse culture shock”
8,10,15
and
compared to experiencing a “cross-cultural transition.”
10,16
Indeed, one of the primary goals of
boot camp is to “socialize recruits by stripping them of their civilian identity and replacing it
with a military identity,”
7
which has its own shared caretaking community.
17,9,18, 19
The
institutions and individuals involved understand that this shift in identity from civilian to SM
takes time. A military identity “promotes self-sacrifice, discipline, obedience to legitimate
authority, and belief in a merit-based rewards system,”
20
which is in stark contrast to an
American civilian identity that fosters individualism and liberty-based civic values.
17
Additionally, some veterans miss the strict structure of military life,
21
or struggle with the lack of
structure that permeates other civilians’ lives.
17,22
The shift from SM to civilian has historically
not been allotted the same (longer) time frame as the shift from civilian to SM (i.e., boot camp).
This relatively quick shift in structure and identity can lead to health issues such as weight gain
and increases in alcohol or nicotine use.
6
In recent years the Government Accountability Office
has noted concerns with this transition.
23,24