Transitioning After the War
Question: Did you have any difficulties transitioning back to civilian life?
Mr. Irving: I did when I was first discharged from the military because I guess its the tension and being in that environment for the period of time. I noticed that …. Once I got out of service and got home how protective I was. I mean, I would hear a sound and would just wake up automatically. You don’t think that you would, but when you hear a sound that’s not the sound that you should hear your body is just conditioned to react to it, to do something, to wake up. I think that was all from the military, it’s like you hear an unfamiliar sound; it’s like your buddy could walk into the area where you are and you’re sleeping and you knew his sound. You knew that sound and that it was ok, that’s ok, but there was some things, a strange person could walk in and there would always be something a little different; you become sensitive to sound and your body is conditioned, to not only hear, but to react to it. When I got out of the military, I was home and even certain things could happen around the house and I would wake up for a second and forget what was going on. Then you realize that everything was alright. So yes, you go through some changes.
I wondered at one particular time if I was gonna stay like that for the rest of my life. But it started to subside, and you start to go back to a norm where you were, but you are a little bit more sensitive than you were originally just because that’s in you. But you sort of come back down, it takes a while. I even used to tell my wife, don’t walk up on me suddenly.
Question: How about your fellow soldiers, did they have a difficult time transitioning to civilian life?
Mr. Irving: Yeah, I know one friend of mine actually killed himself. You know, and he… As he went along, he kept on saying the war really messed him up. He blamed it on what happened there. I can understand that there were something that possibly happened that could have affected him very seriously and very deeply. But, I think he got into a place where he couldn’t… into a hole in a sense, where he couldn’t come out. You know, it left him there. He didn’t figure out how… He is down in a well, and there is a rope or a ladder on this side, but he just never found that rope or ladder. So he ended up dying in that well. That’s the way I look at it. But yeah, there are some who just seem to get worse when they come out of the service. And I do feel that’s the reason: they were just never able to dig out of the hole that they got into. That’s my own summation of the situation. That’s how I feel about it.