Discuss the differences between past U.S. military involvement in wars and the more current actions (OEF/OIF/OND). Why is it important to recognize these differences?

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a. For example, during these wars, many service members experienced multiple deployments with little “dwell time” at home in between (Chandra et al., 2010). In addition, the nature of combat during OEF/OIF/OND produced different patterns of injuries than previous wars. As a result, the consequences of wartime deployment are also likely to be somewhat different for this generation than for veterans of previous wars.
b. Like the first Gulf War, but unlike World War II or the Vietnam War, the recent wars were fought by an all-volunteer force. Because retaining service members is important in an all-volunteer force, service members now are more likely to serve for longer periods and to have families while still serving.
c. Half of OEF/OIF/OND veterans were married with children, compared to 16% among Vietnam War veterans. Second, due to the long duration of the conflicts, OEF/OIF/OND veterans tend to have experienced higher numbers of deployments and longer cumulative durations of deployments than veterans of previous wars (Chandra et al., 2010). By the end of 2010, the average number of deployments was 1.72 with an average of 17.63 cumulative months of deployment for service members with multiple deployments (Institute of Medicine, 2013).
d. Service members experienced longer separations from their families and greater risk of exposure to combat and injuries. Third, despite the large number of OEF/OIF/OND veterans, their proportion in the general population is smaller than veterans of previous wars. For example, only 12% of male and 3% of female Americans under the age of 35 are OEF/OIF/OND veterans compared to 50% of male and 15% of female Americans under the age of 35 in the post-World War II veteran population (Castro & Kintzle, 2014).