As both a veteran and anthropologist, thank you for this very interesting and empatheic post. I have constantly been frustrated by the depictions of soldiers without voice, objects acted on (by war, the “institution” of the military, etc), and not as subjects capable of making their own decisions, and interacting with the world with our own style of humor and sarcasm. I was recently reading Lubkemann’s Culture in Chaos, discussing refugees from warfare in Mozambique, who makes a similar argument about his subjects: it appears to be easier for others to label refugees as powerless and without agency than to have to deal with the complexities of people who, in the midst of war, are still reasoning actors making decisions. This I think gets to MTBradley’s comment above: with the advent of the All-Volunteer force in the 70s, the “soldier” could become someone apart from civilian society, at least in the mythology of civilian culture. The “crazy vet” meme you discuss in your post I personally feel began with the Vietnam Veteran, and my own research shows that soldiers’ main touchstone for the war experience are Vietnam films such as Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, etc. It is hardly surprising then, that soldiers will also clue in on the scripts these stories provide them with how to deal with the aftermath of war as well, albeit with a more ironic flair I think is widespread among the current generation of soldiers.