Jimmy Johnson connects the dots that link the high number of combat veterans in the prison population with the non-existent de-programming of this violence once their service in conflicts is done.

Combat veterans, many of whom are today in the prison population, were once revered and honoured by Governments when fighting in conflicts around the world. But ironically, if the violence that was subconsciously implanted prior to their service in conflicts continued on their return to peacetime society, they then became unwanted liabilities. Strange though it may seem, nobody in authority wants to connect the rather large dots that link the high number of combat veterans in the prison population with the non-existent de-programming of this violence once their service in conflicts is done.

Yet once we learn a new physical skill, such as learning to walk as a child, then later learning to ride a bicycle or perhaps to swim, the brain forms new neural pathways. These pathways are permanent in so far as we never forget how to perform these tasks, regardless of the passage of time. It is also a fact that the more often we perform these tasks, the more effective and automatic the movements become, up to the point where we can perform them without conscious thought. This differs from the brain pathways that are formed when we memorise facts, which if not frequently recalled they diminish and will eventually disappear.

Psychologists and neurologists have long suspected that many decisions and reactions were the subconscious mainstay in response to events and triggers. The advent of brain scanners has now proved beyond doubt that this is true. A simple proof of this concept is that if I throw a soft toy at your face, you will automatically raise a hand to protect yourself, even though logically you know it cannot hurt you. This reaction is a subconscious response to a trigger.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that soldiers trained to respond with extreme violence to certain events and triggers, continue to do so in civilian life, such as when they become involved in arguments, and their grasp on reality is distorted by intense feelings of rage and anger or even combat related PTSD. Those around them may not see what trigger or violence they are responding to, but to the veteran the trigger is a real as the page you are now reading and their subconscious reaction is to automatically carry out the learned response – i.e., ‘inflict maximum damage to the target!’.

In short, once a response has been internalised it becomes the default, in much the same way as a habit, and this will endure for life unless an alternative is learned and internalised to replace it. For instance, the physically violent events which combat troops will encounter during their training or their service in conflicts will cause a response to become embedded in their minds like a new physical skill. Therefore, a new reaction has got to be learned, to override the extreme violence which has been implanted or may have been used in an original traumatic event.

This was the prime reason why I wrote the break off programme – to deconstruct the violence before many thousands of combat veterans are sacrificed to prison for their violent behaviour on the return to normal peacetime surroundings.