Joy and Anticipation for Soldiers’ Return

This article tells the story of thousands of people who are waiting for their family members in the New Jersey National Guard to return home after serving overseas. An armory in Teaneck, NJ, prepares families for soldiers' returns by making them wear helmets for an extended period of time. The discomfort experienced during this minor ordeal is supposed to be representative of the pain and discomfort a soldier experiences while abroad. Exercises like these are meant to forge a link between the reuniting family members, and it serves as an exercise in understanding another's physical pain. The article also talks about being mentally prepared for a soldier's return, acknowledging the fact that the soldiers' personalities are somehow changed during their service. This reminded me of Foucault's idea that soldiers can be made, and it is neccesary that they are made and changed in order to deal with the trials of combat. This articles reflects the belief that soldiers can also be unmade. Many mothers and wives of solders are quoted as expressing a desire for a return to normalcy, that the lives they lived before their sons and husbands were sent abroad could somehow be restored with the rehabilitation of the returning soldiers.