Military Culture and Camaraderie
Our facilitator EJ, a former Soldier during Operation Desert Storm, told us doing well combat is not a matter of courage or cowardice; it’s a matter of trained and untrained. This delineation clarifies our status as facilitators: we initiate discussions because we’re trained to do so, and our audience can speak to the experience of war because they were trained for combat.
Juan, our Marine facilitator, also introduced our group of facilitators to the many acronyms used by Marines. His training in this literacy helps us understand the intricacies of military language and why this culture is important to this NEH grant project (National Endowment for the Humanities).
During our second training session, Major Dana Timmermans, LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, pictured above) led a discussion on military culture. He covered the branches and components of the military; the military structure; key cultural concepts; and do’s and don’ts when interacting with veterans and former service members. His use of story and narrative to explain military culture made it apparent that our use of literature, drama, and film will probably engage our veteran audiences.
In fact, Ancient Greek texts such as Homer’s Iliad might encourage veterans to tell their stories. For example, equipment fails in the Iliad, which can lead to the question, “What kind of equipment failure did you experience?” If one veteran audience member shares, then other veterans might share their experiences, too. Swapping stories might get competitive, and that’s okay because competition drives the military at the enlisted level and the officer level according to Maj. Timmermans. Competition can build a rapport among the veterans and create a more comfortable atmosphere focused on camaraderie, which can lead to other conversation questions about Achilles’s dedication to Patroclus or Neoptolemus’s dilemma of deceiving Philoctetes.
