The emotional wellbeing of military personnel is crucial to overall performance. Soldiers are constantly exposed to stressful situations that can take a toll on their mental health. Maintaining stable relationships back home while deployed away for months or years is also essential. These challenges can be compounded when communication between soldiers and their families becomes limited due to military operations. In this article, I will explore how soldiers can stay connected despite physical separation and maintain relational satisfaction through different strategies.
Soldiers can use technology to communicate with their partners back home. Email, video calls, text messages, social media, and instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Viber, Line, and KakaoTalk have become popular ways to stay in touch. The frequency and length of these interactions depend on the soldier's availability and the operational security restrictions imposed by their commanders.
Even occasional check-ins can make a big difference in maintaining relational continuity.
Soldiers can develop coping mechanisms to deal with the absence of regular communication. Some ways include writing letters or sending postcards to loved ones, keeping a journal, setting reminders for important dates, creating a routine, sharing stories about their experiences, participating in group activities, engaging in hobbies, practicing self-care, and seeking professional help if needed.
Soldiers can rely on support networks, such as friends, family members, and counselors, who provide emotional support and advice during deployment.
Some soldiers may choose to write love letters that express affection, appreciation, and intimacy without revealing any sensitive information. This allows them to share their feelings while preserving secrecy. Soldiers should avoid talking about specific missions, locations, numbers of personnel involved, enemy movements, equipment used, weapons fired, casualties suffered, plans, objectives, tactics, orders, strategies, or operations. They also need to refrain from making negative comments, criticizing others, or divulging personal details that could compromise military security.
When soldiers are reunited after deployment, they should spend time reconnecting and catching up on each other's lives. This includes discussing shared interests, experiences, memories, hopes, goals, and challenges. It is essential to be patient, understanding, and respectful of one another's boundaries and needs. Maintaining open lines of communication, prioritizing quality over quantity, being honest, forgiving mistakes, and giving each other space can all contribute to maintaining relational satisfaction and continuity despite restricted communication and operational secrecy.
Soldiers can maintain relational satisfaction and continuity through various means, including technology, coping mechanisms, love letters, and post-deployment reconnection. By staying connected with loved ones back home, soldiers can mitigate the effects of separation and preserve the stability of their relationships.
It is crucial to respect operational security guidelines to protect military operations.
How do soldiers maintain relational satisfaction and continuity despite restricted communication and operational secrecy?
Soldiers have several ways of coping with restricted communication and operational secrecy that can help them maintain relational satisfaction and continuity. Firstly, soldiers may engage in regular communication through various means such as phone calls, emails, social media, and letters. This helps them feel connected to their loved ones and keeps the relationship strong even when they are not physically together. Secondly, soldiers may share meaningful activities that bring them closer to their loved ones.