Using service, transition, and post-military life as focal points, this presentation examines the intricate relationships between military culture, institutional structures, and veteran well-being. The study demonstrates how organisational structures, systemic responses, and martial masculinity profoundly influence veterans' psychological experiences and trajectories using critical incident case studies and life course interviews. Serving in the military causes significant identity issues, especially when one experiences moral injury, which is defined as the betrayal of one's moral convictions under pressure. Veterans live in a complicated world where they must constantly balance their personal values, traumatic experiences, and institutional expectations. The study demonstrates how the emphasis placed on stoicism, invulnerability, and masculine competence in military culture poses serious obstacles to psychological recovery and mental health support. The presentation reveals how bureaucratic procedures that personalise trauma and impose unachievable burdens of proof on service members frequently worsen veterans' psychological distress. The process of leaving the military and entering the civilian world is particularly difficult, marked by a sense of purposelessness, social alienation, and persistent psychological difficulties. The presentation offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics of military service, identity formation, and veteran well-being by exploring the complex relationships among individual experiences, institutional cultures, and systemic responses. This allows for a more nuanced understanding of the long-term effects of military experience.