Many military veterans thought they were making strides in recent years to overcome "the Rambo narrative" — the idea that all veterans come home as mentally scarred ticking time bombs, waiting to explode. But with the revelation that both gunmen implicated in fatal ambushes of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were young military veterans, they say they fear a big step backward.
Neither of the gunmen had combat experience, according to military records, and there is no evidence they suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, which the public often associates with the potential for violence. But veterans' groups worry that negative stereotypes will nonetheless spread, keeping employers from hiring veterans and hindering an already tough transition from military to civilian life.
"People see these guys were veterans and they make the leap that all veterans are killers with PTSD that are going to blow at a moment's notice," said Phillip Carter, an Iraq War veteran who studies the interaction between veterans and society for the Center for a New American Security. "That message is very harmful."
There is no data that suggests veterans as a whole are more likely to commit crimes. In fact, a number of veterans have noted that while both gunmen had served in the military, so had four of the eight officers who were killed, said Paul Rieckhoff, the founder and chief executive officer of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
"The truth is that veterans are much more likely to be the rescuer than the assailant," said Rieckhoff, who was an Army infantry platoon leader during the invasions in Iraq. "But there is this lazy stereotype that we come back as damaged souls."
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Thousands of veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan struggling to deal with their war experiences. And some research has shown that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to commit crimes. But the image of the war-haunted, violent veteran has often eclipsed the quieter reality of the millions of veterans who have thrived back home in civilian life.
That negative image has roots in American culture reaching back at least to the Civil War. In modern times it is personified by the fictional Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, a pop icon who in the 1982 film "First Blood" is mistreated by a small-town sheriff and seeks revenge, waging war against the police force.
"When people see the shooters were veterans, that's what they think, and it damages all of us," Rieckhoff said. "In reality, you look at the shooters' biographies and it looks like their military experience had nothing to do with what happened."
Micah Johnson, who killed five police officers in Dallas this month, served in the Army Reserve from 2009 to 2015 as part of a construction platoon, and had only basic training with weapons. Though he deployed to Afghanistan, nothing in his military record shows he saw combat, or that anyone in his unit was wounded. He acquired much of his tactical training outside the military.
Gavin Long, who killed three officers in Baton Rouge on Sunday, served in the Marine Corps from 2005 to 2010 as a data network specialist. He deployed to Iraq, but in a recent podcast, Long, using the name Cosmo, said he had not seen combat.
On Monday, veterans sizing up the men's backgrounds said they did not see war experience as a factor in the attacks.
"Maybe there is something in the fact that they both served in the military, but it obviously doesn't have anything to do with combat," said Matt Gallagher, an Iraq War veteran and the author of the novel "Youngblood." "The problem is the headlines don't leave much room for nuance. The public sees veterans one of three ways: We are all heroes, we are all victims, or we are all monsters."
The concern, he said, is that the shootings push more people toward seeing veterans as monsters — something he already encounters regularly. Recently, Gallagher said, he was interviewing for a creative writing position at a university when the interviewers warned that he could be asked to teach students who were "nontraditional," including veterans.
"The implication was that veterans are scary, unpredictable," he said. "I told them I, myself, am an Iraq veteran. After that, I could see in their faces as the conversation continued that I had lost the job."
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A number of veterans' groups, eager to cast off negative stereotypes, have banded together in recent years in an informal partnership they call the veterans' empowerment movement. They organize volunteering trips and disaster relief teams, and exercise meetups to re-engage veterans in their communities. But, many say, negative stereotypes persist.
"We are seen as broken heroes," said Bill Rausch, an Iraq War veteran who heads Got Your 6, a nonprofit that tries to improve portrayals of veterans in Hollywood and the media.
In a public survey the group conducted this year, he said, more than 80 percent of respondents said veterans suffered from mental health problems.
"Recent events only reinforce those perceptions," he said. "If the American people are afraid of us instead of seeing us as an asset, it makes it more difficult for everyone."