The Problem with Transition

“All I want to do is shoot guns and work out, I’ll just do that.” The stained, musty, and broken office chair creaked as a disgruntled Weapons Sergeant leaned back in his chair. He interlocked his fingers behind his head imagining post-military life, which was quickly approaching, for a moment before rebounding back into an upright position to finish a range request for upcoming training. 

 My Team Sergeant, a muscular and tattooed Master Sergeant, stood up to make eye contact over the back of the desks from across the Team Room and spoke with a serious and authoritative tone, “You’re getting out, you have to do more than shoot guns and workout. You need a plan. Put some effort into it for your family’s sake or just reenlist!” He sat back down, tired of the same conversation repeating itself over the past few weeks. He had led us in combat, trained us, and been a pillar of support for everything inside our military career, but now he had one of his guys leaving for a new mission where he had little to offer. The transition classes which were mandatory for all soldiers seemed lacking and focused more on younger guys, he wanted to see his team succeed in every aspect of war and life.

Looking back now, having been the Team Sergeant and having two of my younger teammates get out, I understand his frustration. You want the best for the guys; they are your purpose. You train in poor weather, you shift back and forth on and off reverse cycle, you shoot, lift, run, ruck, jump, and study. Why? For them. The guys to your left and right. For the guys you see in your Team Room every day, the guys you joke with, challenge, push to improve, and support, for this reason you never feel too tired, too hungry, or too lazy. You have a purpose that stares you in the face, a person who you know the names of their children, their birthdays, anniversaries, you know their favorite beverage and you can spot when they need a moment alone or a voice of support just from the way they walk up the stairs. One day, that changes.

The problem with transitioning from the military, especially Special Operations, is that we love a lifestyle that we know, but for one reason or another, the time comes to change it. Whether its medical, family, personal, or career reasons, at some point in time it ends. On the Team, the focus is on the present and the near future, the 25-meter Target, the next training evolution, the next deployment, the next task. Transitioning, even as a senior guy on a Team, seems a distant thought but it arrives before you realize it. One day you are running and gunning, planning, deploying, hanging out with your Team, laughing at good memories together, and then it’s over. 

We know what is expected of us every day on the Team. We know what it means to perform, to be successful at our job, and to make the Team better. We know our purpose, our ‘why’, and how to tap into them to push through the most mentally difficult and physically grueling situations. Even when the process is unclear, we have an end-state in mind that we can work through while shifting and adjusting as we go. 

We can use the principles that we learned within our service and experiences in novel ways to guide our path to the next adventure, transitioning from the military. That’s what you’re trained to do as a SOF guy, solve problems.

I think back to a British Marine I ran into in Africa. Anytime I asked for a situation update he would reply the same way:

He’d rub his mustache, look off over my shoulder as if a brilliant revelation was about to be released and then respond with, “Dynamic… Very, Dynamic.” 

That is the military transition process in a nutshell. I know there are threats, I know there is a desired end state, I know there are checkpoints along the way, but what are they? I know I need resources, support, and a timeline… but, I don’t know exactly what they look like. It’s… dynamic. The resources available to someone separating in January is different than someone separating in August. The experiences each person faced while in uniform also plays a role in the transition process that can either strengthen and support the move, or create new hurdles and barriers.

The obstacles and threats that you experience during transition are different than any combat zone you’ve ever deployed to. Your identity, purpose, self-image, self-worth, and the rules you are expected to live by change drastically. If these obstacles aren’t addressed early on it can cause major difficulties during and post transition from the military that can impact you, your family, your future career, and the friendships around you.

You have tools, experiences, and principles you can rely on to find answers to new problems. You can use the skills developed and apply them in new ways. You might not be carrying a gun and walking through a desert or climbing up a mountainside, but you will use the internal fortitude and problem solving from those deployments and missions to solve new problems. That’s what I am here to shine a light on for you. 

While we all wish we could transition into just working out and shooting guys (and by the grace of God, some guys do), we need to be proactive, put our skills, knowledge, and experiences to work, and we need to initiate movement. You cannot sit and wait for everything to come to you in the transition process, it is an active and dynamic mission. Whether you’re at receive the mission, or you finished and moved on to the next phase of life, there will always be something you can take and add to your toolbox through this series.

Through this 12-Part Series, SOFLETE is putting out the information to you that will give you the foresight, knowledge, and actionable intelligence to be successful in your transition. These are the conversations that won’t be happening with your transition counselor or at the retirement office, these are the conversations that should be happening in the Team Room between the guys. There will be a mix of experience-based discussions infused with research from psychology and neuroscience. You mastered your craft on the Team, you mastered your weapon and your specialty, now is the time to build on those fundamentals for the next challenge in life.

Are you ready?