Military Life: The Psychology of Serving in Peace And Combat

With global commitments and combat duty, our armed forces face life-threatening challenges on a daily basis. However, less visible threats also impact the mental health of our military men and women. Experts examine challenges on the battlefield, such as women coming to terms with life after being prisoners of war, or soldiers dealing with mistakenly killing civilians. But life in the armed forces presents less dramatic, daily challenges. Away from the front lines, soldiers have to raise their families, sometimes as single parents. Children have to learn what it's like to be in a military family, and to make sense of war. Gay or lesbian officers cope with a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. An unprecedented range of contributors--military officers, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and professors--take us onto the bases and the battlefields and inside the minds of military personnel who face far greater challenges than most of us ever see in the headlines.

Thomas W. Britt is Professor of Psychology at Clemson University. He was previously a Research Psychologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is the co-editor ofPsychology of the Peacekeeper: Lessons from the Field (Praeger, 2003).

Amy B. Adler is Lead Scientist and Science Coordinator with the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit, Europe, at Heidelberg. She served from 1992 to 2000 as a Professor of Psychology for the U.S. military community attending a branch of the University of Maryland in Germany. She is the co-editor of Psychology of the Peacekeeper: Lessons from the Field (Praeger, 2003).

Carl Andrew Castro is Chief of the Center for Soldier and Family Readiness at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C.