US military has the highest reported PTSD in its history, and probably the world. Some of it is error and fraud. But even people who didn't experience combat return alienated and depressed. The problem isn't battlefield trauma but reentry into society.

Also true for Peace Corps

— Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) April 24, 2018

I understand why people stay in the military and especially why they stay in units like the 82nd (my old unit). There, someone always has your back. Someone is always looking out for you. If you hurt yourself or you just need a hand, people are always around and more than willing to help. There are people there on whom your life literally depends and vice versa.

When I left the military, though I was glad to be out, I lost my entire community and felt pretty adrift. Regular civilian society is the fucking jungle compared to being in a paratrooper unit. In the civilian arena, no one is around to help. You do everything as a disconnected individual, with no real assistance and often institutions and people actively working against you. It feels like an alien, hostile world where it’s far more sink or swim than any military unit.