Folks who have never served in combat (myself included, although I've been in a combat zone) is that people don't understand - you simply can't look at it from a peacetime civilian attitude. Day after day of being under stress and fire - GI's (male and female) that they kid around differently, they might do things that in the civilian world would be unacceptable - you simply can't put civilian attitudes to those in combat.
Not saying they are expected to do bad things, but when you might be under fire or fighting for your lives at any point, you react a lot different than back on the block / farm / street. Life itself is looked at different - when you've been told that the enemy is evil and they need to be killed (how else do you get normal folks to kill?) - it has to affect the troops.
PTSD has always occurred and is called different things each war, it can be many battles / years or it can be a couple of things that happen.
Unless you've been in their shoes, please don't judge.
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