When the Army Kicks you to the Curb

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Recommended: Veteran's reintegration process

Reintegration into civilian life after serving in the armed forces is a societal issue that does not receive enough attention. Regardless of when and how a soldier leaves the military, it is a life adjustment and should not be considered lightly. Being a veteran, mother of a veteran and the daughter of a veteran I have suffered a personal witness to this reintegration process 3 times in my life time. There are individuals that choose to make a career out of the military and endure all the military has to dish out in order to earn their retirement benefits; however, there are others that find themselves retired for medical reasons. For medical retirement all branches of our armed forces use a regulation known as the Temporary Disability Retired List (TDRL) that was put in place October 12, 1949; however, this is an ever evolving regulation that requires extensive research through the countless amendments to understand exactly the rights of a soldier on TDRL (Piccirillo, 2012). Reintegration into civilian life has many layers, the finances, housing, parenting, relationships and employment all change through this process; although, there are some resources available in these situations they are not always readily available, widely known about or even appropriate.
One scenario that is repeated often is a soldier returns from multiple deployments to the middle east to be told they are now unfit for duty and are being placed on the Temporary Disability Retired List (TDRL). TDRL can be a demoralizing process that starts with a medical board finding a soldier to be unfit for duty. Unfit for duty? Military service is the direct cause of the issue the soldier is having. Serving the country honorably you would not expect to be labeled unfit...

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...d family psychology review, 16(3), 229-232. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-013-0147-x#page-1 McGrane, M. (2011, Spring). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in the Military: the Need for
Legislative Improvement of Mental Health Care for Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Journal of Law and Health, 24(1), 183+.
Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA259750081&v=2.1&u=lincclin_spjc&it =r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=3faf321faccff1987206c5e5931268e2
Piccirillo, A. W. (2012). Temporary Disability Retirement Cases: Variations in Time to Final
Disposition and Disability Rating by Service and Medical Condition. Military Medicine,
177(4), 417-422. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.db24.linccweb.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=1e2 2149d-0c6f-42c7-a536-20c43081d790%40sessionmgr10&hid=5

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