Chapter Five:
Fitness for Duty, Recovery, and Return to Service
After a combat injury it can be a difficult process to transition from being an active soldier to being a patient recovering in a medical hospital. This chapter takes the readers through every step of the process from a description of how different types of injuries impact returning service members and their family members to staying organized during treatment to how one can return to service in the armed forces, obtain education, or seek employment outside the military. The authors of this chapter have assembled useful information in one easy-to-read format.
Once you are injured in combat, going from an active soldier to a patient recovering in a medical hospital is not an easy process. In the past, the assumption was made that with a major injury, your career in the military was over, whether you liked it or not. Today, however, with advances in prostheses and accommodation technology and changes in opinions and attitudes, service members with disabilities can return to active duty and continue to serve our nation even with missing limbs or other injuries.
This chapter takes you through these steps. It begins with a description of how an injury may impact veterans and their family members, then it explores options available, and describes the challenges you may face in the military as you go through this process. The chapter offers you practical advice and suggestions on how to stay organized and persevere through these steps as it lists the people and resources that you can utilize to help you through all the steps. Finally, if you are interested in remaining in the service, the chapter describes the ways that you can do this.
Because each branch of the armed forces uses different terminology and has unique steps, processes, and programs, specific details about each branch are provided.
Author:
Mark J. Bates, Ph.D., assembled a team of active duty military psychologists who work with and treat service members in all of the military’s branches. As this work was compiled by military and VA personnel, it is expected that much of the extensive material assembled in this chapter will be used by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (the military’s medical school) training programs for military psychologists. Dr. Bates is a licensed clinical psychologist and an active duty Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force (AF). He recently retired as the Training Director at one of the three AF clinical psychology internship programs at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center located at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Stephen V. Bowles, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and active duty Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army and Assistant Professor and Director, Division of Military Psychology and Leadership at the Uniformed Services University Health Sciences F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine. He also served as Joint Task Force Command Psychologist in Iraq and as the Interim Chief and Deputy Chief at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Jocelyn A. Kilgore, M.D., is a board certified psychiatrist and an active duty Major in the United States Air Force currently assigned to the Department of Psychiatry and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Hebert School of Medicine.
Lionel P. Solursh, M.D., PPsych, is a board certified Internist/Psychiatrist who has authored forty-four papers in professional journals, twelve books or book chapters, and numerous other materials. He works with the Mental Health-PTSD team at the VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, and is also a Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia.
