Basically, it was that if you were broken and you didn't fix yourself.... I joined in 1994, back when if you were sick, you didn't tell anyone, and if you were hurt, you were a wussy. We might have encouraged that attitude a little bit back then. One of the threats I got after being wounded and losing my legs was “You'll be sent to SPHL if you don't shape up.” At the time, I'd never heard of it, until I went home and opened up one of the books.
When guys are sent there, I believe they lose touch with the unit. Pretty quickly you lose touch with your comrades and the unit and what's going on. I think the biggest fear people have is that if you get sent to JPSU, you are taken out of operations. That's the kiss of death to a career, to a line soldier, being taken out of operations—you're no longer operational.