When I joined the army in 1962, they needed infantry cannon fodder for the growing insurgency in Vietnam. Young and gung ho, I applied for every specialized infantry program they offered and got what I most wanted – jump school and ranger training. The military was so completely different from anything I’d experienced, it bowled me over at first. Free from the restraints of a conservative university, I was influenced by the wrong people and swept away by women and liquor. I‘d grown up physically but not mentally or emotionally. At twenty years old, I was six-feet, 180 pounds of solid muscle, a holy terror and willing to try anything.
Sidney’s desire to become an airborne ranger may also be linked to his childhood abandonment and abuse and demonstrated by behaviors that can be symptoms of DESNOS. Exposing himself to the extreme emotional and physical demands of this specialized training may comprise several DESNOS symptoms: excessive risk taking, modulation of anger, revictimization, victimizing others and self destructive behavior.