MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- Marines and service members experience an array of situations and environments during their military careers from being sent thousands of miles from home to patrolling nerve-racking streets in Iraq.

They train as warriors and fight to protect the United States, but as  human beings, they are still vulnerable to the emotional and mental stressors of combat.

Serving in combat environments can result in the development of combat operational stress reactions, or COSR, or post traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD.

COSR, by definition, is normal reactions to an abnormal environment. These normal reactions can include increased alertness, decreased sleepiness or different reactions to loud noises.

“Part of it is the up-tempo by which people live in a combat zone,” said Tim Stanton, the fmily advocacy program manager for Marine Corps Community Services, or MCCS, here. “There is no safe area in a combat zone. Therefore, people develop heightened tension, anxiety, sitivity and alertness while living under those circumstances. The human mind will work to protect itself in order to adapt to these abnormal conditions.”

It’s the constant unknown that causes these responses, according to Navy Capt. Brian F. Kelly, the station’s chaplain.

“The front cover of Newsweek magazine is a tribute to the fallen troops, and it says, ‘Any day I’m here could be the day I die.’ Here in America, we don’t get up every morning and think this may be the day I die. Over there, you don’t know if an IED is going to go off or a sniper will get you, and that is the kind of awareness that these Marines have,” said Kelly.

When these reactions, essential for survival in combat, fail to shut off when service members return home, COSR or PTSD can develop, according to Stanton.

“When they come back, the things that we take as normal every day life, they are hyper sensitive and alert to,” Stanton said. “Their startle responses are different and so are their reactions.”

The differences between COSR and PTSD are sometimes misconstrued, as the term PTSD has become widely recognized among the American public, according to Stanton.

“The misconception is that any Marine coming back from the war on terrorism who is having some issues or problems has PTSD,” said Stanton.

But according to Stanton, it’s typically not PTSD.

“PTSD takes a longer period of time to develop once removed from the event – in this regard, the event is combat,” he said. “Once removed, there are a variety of symptoms a person can exhibit.” 

He encourages service members to seek help if the symptoms become disruptive to daily life. But according to Kelly, Marines and sailors who think they may be suffering from COSR or PTSD hesitate to seek help out of fear that it will be perceived as an admission of weakness.

“We go back to that most traditional saying, ‘If I present that I’m having difficulties with PTSD, it’s a sign of weakness,’” said Kelly. “‘It’s a sign of weakness to me as a man and as a Marine. I’m supposed to be able to handle this. That’s what my superiors have always said.’ But that’s certainly not true.

“The reality of it is: If you broke your leg, you broke your leg,” Kelly explained. “It has to get fixed. We have to take you out of the mainstream of things temporarily to get that leg fixed, and then, we can get you back there to do your job at full strength. That is probably the biggest problem: Marines think it means they’re weak individuals.”

Although the mentality of most Marines requires them to be tough, this is one issue they should not think of as a flaw.

“I think if it affects one Marine or one sailor, that’s one too many,” said Kelly. “In many ways, Marines never take their packs off. We want to take care of them and give everyone an opportunity to come back and resume as normal a way of life as they can.”

Kelly asks Marines and sailors to seek help as soon as symptoms arise.

“If the way they feel, their thinking, actions and mood swings are not the way they were prior to going into combat, that would be a good time to come in and talk to a doctor,” he said.

Miramar service members who believe they are experiencing symptoms of COSR or PTSD can seek help by calling the chaplain’s office at 858-577-1333, MCCS counseling at 858-577-6585 or Military OneSource, which hosts a 24-hour hotline and referral service at 1-800-342-9647.

For more information on COSR and PTSD, visit www.usmc-mccs.org/cosc/ and www.nimh.nih.gov/.