VV8.21

The Tribal Community
By: Chuck Dean / Vet 2 Vet
When we spend months, or years, with
other warriors in a war zone doing
wartime activities, we automatically become a
team-working community. We became a tribe.
Such a community is not merely a group, because a “group” of
people does not necessarily mean they work together, or even know
one another. To be a group does not require affiliation, but community
does. A tribal community is comprised of tried-and-true partners who
are involved with each other and follow the same rules and customs.
For most veterans, one of the most regretful aspects of coming
home from military service is leaving the tribal community. It was a
time and place where we were forced to carve out a life for ourselves -
sometimes with blood, sweat, and tears.
Within that tribe, each
member had changed within
themselves according to
the demands placed upon
them, both as individuals
and as participants of a true
community. As a tribal team
we learned how to live through
extraordinary hardships, and
we cared that everyone made it through.
We passed around the same soggy, rain-soaked cigarettes from man
to man, and no one was left out. Together we learned to like C-rations
or MREs.
We found it okay to snuggle up and sleep together in the driest parts
of a foxhole, and we hardly gave any thought to being crammed like
sardines in bunks aboard a ship.
In the most basic ways, we came to know one another’s characters.
We did this through many shared hardships, and in the middle of it
all we saw each other’s human weaknesses.
No matter how bad the conditions were, or how often we dreamed
of coming back to a normal life, leaving that close knit and intimate
community was very difficult.
What we had experienced with those comrades for all those long
months will always be unchanged in our hearts, and leaving that
comradeship is a tough thing to do.
Most veterans long for this “community” when we get home and
sadly many never find it again.
I truly believe that if, and when, that community gets re-established
in our civilian lives it will handle many of the re-adjustment issues
that we face.
And no matter how old you are, I hope you find that community
and enjoy the unique peace it can bring.
Chuck Dean served as an Army paratrooper in Vietnam and
through that experience was led to address the many transitional
issues veterans struggle with. He is the author of several
important books for veterans. All can be found on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/author/chuckdeanbooks
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