U.S. Air Force, Army certify as Assistant Resiliency Trainers

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Angelique Bilog
  • Tech. Sgt. Angelique Bilog
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Twenty Airmen and Soldiers attended a week-long joint assistant resiliency trainer course Feb 21-27.

The resiliency course, developed by the Army along with the University of Pennsylvania, teaches military members how to deal with many issues that they might face in a calm, methodical way; one step at a time. The course provides members with the tools to combat stressful situations before they become bigger problems down the road.

Master Resiliency Instructor, U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Roger Craig, Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery, taught the class and said that the training is about teaching the skills that allow Soldiers and Airmen to become more resilient.

"The Army, after having a high level of ops tempo, realized that we had a lot of Soldiers that were not very resilient," Craig said. "They were going into situations and coming out of that situation needing mental health care of some sort. So we realized that we were taking care of the problem after the fact."

The program is designed to help our people become more resilient before going into difficult situations so that we would have less or fewer soldiers leaving that situation needing mental health care."

This particular course, the first joint resiliency training course conducted on Kadena AB, focused on training Airmen and Soldiers to become Resiliency Trainer Assistants who would then be able to provide training to their perspective units.

"It was very different," Craig said. "It was definitely beneficial. Having the Air Force there gave us a different outlook because the Air Force trains differently. Their jobs are different, and the amount of stress and the way that they go through their stress is very different ... It also gave us a chance to all come together. We're on this joint base so it gave us a chance to see what the other branches go through."

U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Roger Starcher, 18th Equipment Maintenance Squadron aircraft fabrication superintendent, said he enjoyed going through the course and learned some valuable tools that he will be able to teach Airmen in his unit to help them combat stressful situations and be more resilient.

"Several topics that we went over in class would benefit a lot of people," Starcher said, "especially with me being an instructor now. I'll be able to pass that information along to some of the Airmen who are struggling with these same issues that we discussed in class."

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Shermaine Malone, launcher platoon squad leader, Charlie Battery, 1-1 ADA, is an experienced RTA who also taught during the class. He said he was impressed how the joint aspect of the course broadened his view and allowed him to see a different perspective of how the military, as a whole, thinks.

"Even though the Air Force and Army are different in some ways, in others they are very much the same, just with different ways of getting to the same solution," Malone said. "It was great to be able to share and exchange thoughts and notes on how the two branches overcome the same issues they both face."

He said it was clear the lanes of communication were opened up by common experiences regardless of branch of service.

There are already plans to keep this kind of joint training going so more people throughout the joint community will benefit.

"I think the training went well, it was excellent," Malone said. "We hope that in the future we are allowed to not only include the Air Force more but the other branches as well so we can make sure the entire military benefits from it since the military as a whole is focused on resiliency. In times of increased suicides and other issues that are going on in the different branches, I believe that increased resiliency through this training can help not only Air Force and Army, but all the branches."

Craig and Malone both expressed their intent to continue to provide joint resiliency training and plan to use the newly-trained Resiliency Trainer Assistants, both Air Force and Army, to provide training to both branches as well.