Major Heston Russell (Ret'd), a former commander in the Australian Special Forces, said transition to civilian life was especially confronting for people who had been indoctrinated to give up their personal identity for the group.
"The military is great at mission command... It also has to include preparing our veterans for life after service as well," Mr Russell told told the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
"In the US forces, people join knowing that their service time is finite. We sell... this infinite dream and we definitely need to change that."
Mr Russell said defence members were trained to act selflessly as a team and instilled with values like respect and accountability.Â
That left them completely unprepared for the "dog eat dog" values of the corporate world.
"They find themselves looking for careers and looking for purpose as well as profit to survive and they are unable to achieve or sustain that level of fulfilment," Mr Russell said.
"These are not the values in Australia, it is not responsible, it is entitled, it is not selfless, it is selfish.
Mr Russell told the commission his own struggles trying to rejoin civilian life had left him feeling isolated and suicidal, prompting him to set up the Veteran Support Force, a 1700-strong digital community run by veteran volunteers .
He said defence failed to warn transitioning defence members they had been working for "a giant not for profit that is filled with more experience than you could ever have in the commercial world".
Mr Russell said veterans were forced to hand in their identification cards on leaving the service, only to end up in protracted battles with the Department of Veteran Affairs, fighting for compensation and veteran entitlements.
"When people spend... years dealing with the claims process... that's what they become, they become their grief, they become their trauma and the whole time they feel like they have been abandoned," Mr Russell said.
"None of these are the character traits that were instilled in the best version of themselves. It is psychological warfare 101."
The commission will hearing more evidence in Brisbane on Monday.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Open Arms 1800 011 046
