My name is Allister Baker, and I am a military veteran and PhD candidate in psychology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. I served as an infantryman in the New Zealand Army for more than a decade, including deployments to Timor-Leste and Afghanistan. During my service, I encountered experiences that deeply challenged my sense of morality, experiences that continued to shape how I understood right and wrong long after leaving the military.

In the years that followed, I struggled to reconcile those events with my values as a civilian. While studying psychology, I discovered the concept of moral injury and immediately recognised its relevance, not only to my own journey but to that of many other veterans seeking to make sense of similar experiences.

My current research suggests that actions considered necessary or justified within military culture, such as the use of lethal force, may later be reappraised as morally injurious once veterans return to civilian life. My doctoral research now builds on this work, exploring how veterans’ moral values evolve after service and how these shifts influence the persistence of moral injury. Ultimately, my goal is to inform better support for service members during transition and reintegration.