My next-to-last combat job required a lot of driving through Afghanistan, usually in a 'single-vehicle convoy', at most with one other vehicle. I was usually driving with Canadians or Germans in relatively unarmored vehicles, much of the time in urban areas. I did not have to do this every day, or for a year. The reason I bring this up is it made me reflect on the special stress of patrolling in urban areas and how soldiers adapt to it.

Patrolling in an urban area in an environment like Afghanistan presents to the soldier an unending stream of possible threats. Potholes, trash heaps, narrow roads, suspicious looking men in bulky cloaks, single guy driving a trashed sedan a little too close, abandoned acetylene tanks, kid driving crazy on a motorbike - the stimuli are constant. If you are mounted, you may literally be encountering possible danger signals two or three times a minute. Reacting as you have been trained to do is impossible - most times you can't investigate, mark, avoid, survey possible threats if you want to accomplish whatever your larger mission may be.

This seems qualitatively different from patrols in other terrain. Danger signals occur less often, or are less intrusive on your conscious mind, or are easier to avoid. Moreover, when you are humping through the jungle/swamp/hills, the physical challenge soon preoccupies and dulls the mind to danger. You don't have that distraction riding in a vehicle in an urban environment.

It seemed to me that soldiers coped with this constant low-level stress in one of two ways. They either became very aggressive - driving fast, waving their weapons, shouting, wearing their war face - or they adopted a 'Buddah will decide' attitude and basically ignored the danger signals. The best ones remained alert while accepting the tension, like a soldier who stays functional during an extended barrage. But, as I said, I wasn't trapped in that environment day-after-day for months on end.

Any thoughts?