Download Trainer Medal Of Honor Warfighter

[Placido Teofilo]

McGREGORRANGE, N.M. -- Noncommissioned officers from the 3rd Engineer Battalion, 364th Regiment, Task Force Rampant, 5th Armored Brigade, Division West, recently participated in a train-the-trainer course here for the HUSKY Vehicle Mounted Mine Detection Cause and Effect System trainer, known as the HMDS-CES.

The training system, which was tested and evaluated at Fort Bliss, Texas, last summer, uses a much less expensive radio frequency identification technology to simulate ground penetrating radar detection of buried threats. The HMDS-CES was designated as the primary trainer for units deploying for overseas contingency operations.

As part of their mission, Task Force Rampant trains Army Reserve and National Guard units that have route clearance missions in Afghanistan. Before being validated to deploy, Soldiers in these units must be able to demonstrate proficiency using the Husky and HMDS system.

The train-the-trainer course was taught by the Project Manager Counter Mine and Explosive Ordnance Disposal. During 40 hours of instruction, Task Force Rampant Soldiers were trained and certified as Husky operators on both live ground penetrating radar and its complimentary surrogate training system.

"For a first-time operator on the Husky, I was very impressed with this piece of equipment. As a combat engineer, I have full confidence on the equipment and know its capability and functions," said Staff Sgt. Darcy Toves, a Task Force Rampant observer controller/trainer. "With this training, I have the know-how to train joint warfighter Soldiers more proficiently and effectively."

Master Sgt. Warner Stadler, the battalion's senior trainer and master mechanic, arranged the training to ensure that combat engineer and maintainer observer controller/trainers were proficient on both the systems and the current tactics, techniques and procedures used in theater before the arrival of the next round of units due to train at McGregor Range in November and December.

"Operators, maintainers and leaders need to be very familiar with the capabilities and limitations of the live system in order to employ it correctly," said Stadler, a mobilized member of the Texas Army National Guard. "Lack of training, lost proficiency, and misunderstandings about the systems capabilities can result in disastrous IED strikes on the Husky or follow-on vehicles."

One of the challenges with training on the Husky is that it is a single operator vehicle; the instructor must wear a harness and tie onto the vehicle and coach the operator from the top hatch opening.

"The training provided a better understanding of what the Husky operator should be looking for, and helped us understand better ways for training the joint warfighter," said Staff Sgt. Kenyunus Andrews, Task Force Rampant.

"I now feel very comfortable driving the Husky and operating the HMDS-CES system," Gries said. "We gained proficiency with the central display unit, which operated the (ground penetrating radar), and how to set the timing with (global positioning system) and (radio frequency identification) tags. We learned the current (tactics, techniques and procedures) and methods to best train the system given the limitations due its size and configuration."

"Getting our maintenance observer-controller trainers trained on the system will pay dividends during the field exercises as part of the (reserve component) unit culminating training events," Stadler said. "With knowledge on the system, skills and special tools to diagnose faults, our mechanics are now able to diagnose malfunctions, order and replace parts. This should reduce the reliance on field serve representative support, especially when the program manager is not located at Fort Bliss. Additionally, it will ensure minimal downtime and allow the (joint warfighter) units to get maximum training value on this critical system prior to deployment."

Having established the value of Stoic philosophy and its role in strengthening the human spirit, part two springboards to a broader discussion on the role of religion/spirituality as an underutilized but invaluable strengthening factor that has the potential for meaningful impact on positive command outcomes, including warfighter readiness, while at the same time reducing destructive behaviors. Much of this discussion involves clinical analysis and presents data-driven research regarding the impact of religion/spirituality on happiness and life satisfaction, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and mental and physical health. This section also provides the same clinical analysis and research on the impact of religion/spirituality on lowering substance use problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), conflict about moral injury, and suicide risk. Part two provides clinical research strongly suggesting that religion/spirituality is a great strengthening agent that fortifies and enhances such things as character development, warrior toughness, and resiliency. In so doing, part two forges and significantly advances the positive benefits that are statistically accretive for any commander, such as strengthening the resiliency of sailors and Marines at all levels across the entire DON. The article concludes that Stoicism and religious/spiritual practice go hand-in-hand to further the goals of leveraging holistic health as a twenty-first-century military strategy while building character, instilling core values, and optimizing warfighter readiness.

In discussing the benefits of Stoicism to the military in terms of building character and increasing readiness, it is important to frame at the outset the problem of resiliency within the military as it pertains to leadership addressing the topic of spirituality and the spiritual. In doing so, it must be recognized at the forefront that it is standard practice within military units to see individual toughness largely as a nonissue until someone is injured or broken in some capacity. It must also be acknowledged that a real dilemma for many military commanders today is that they face the challenges of an increasingly irreligious society and that many of their sailors and Marines may not see themselves as religious. Moreover, many leaders are uncomfortable with discussing spirituality because of a sense of conflating that discussion with religious beliefs or traditions. Consequently, if a Navy chaplain is to continue to be one of the primary sources of care for sailors and Marines, the gap must be bridged to spiritual fitness. With that in mind, the contemporary definition for spiritual readiness can be understood as the strength of spirit that allows the warfighter to accomplish the mission with honor.

The TFF Framework addresses metrics without citing any specific studies that indicate the benefits or possible negative aspects of spiritual fitness. The 10 associated metrics are a combination of surveys, medical evaluations, tests, and questionnaires, and much like the H2F concept and ALMARS 033/16 and 027/20, there are no metrics linking spiritual readiness to positive operational outcomes.

Because spiritual beliefs and practices are a primary source of spiritual readiness, examining their effects on human flourishing may offer some conclusions about how spiritual readiness influences human flourishing. While there are also nonreligious sources of spiritual readiness, there is much less published research that examines these connections with human flourishing. The six primary dimensions of human flourishing that are focused on here are as follows: happiness and life satisfaction; meaning and purpose; character and virtue; close social relationships; mental and physical health; and financial/material stability.87

If spiritual involvement enhances happiness and life satisfaction, then it will likely increase warfighter readiness. A systematic review of quantitative research published in peer-reviewed academic journals from the 1800s through 2010 identified 326 studies.88 Of those, 256 (79 percent) reported that higher levels of religiosity/spirituality were related to greater psychological well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, and other positive emotions, while only 3 studies (less than 1 percent) reported significantly lower well-being among those more spiritually involved.89 These findings have been largely replicated in a more recent systematic review, including studies of current or former military personnel.90

Religious/spiritual involvement has been consistently related to greater meaning and purpose in life. Of 45 quantitative studies identified in the systematic review described above, 42 (93 percent) reported greater meaning and purpose among those who were more involved in spiritual activities.91 Research conducted in the past 10 years using larger samples and better study designs has replicated these findings, including studies in young adults.92

When a military mission is conducted with honor, the emotional casualties (particularly the inner conflicts over moral transgressions) are far less common. The systematic review described above identified studies examining the relationship between spiritual involvement and a wide range of character traits such as altruism, volunteering, gratitude, forgiveness, and delinquency or adult crime. Most of these studies found that greater spirituality was associated with significantly more acts of altruism, volunteering, gratitude, willingness to forgive, and lower levels of delinquency and crime; in this last case, 82 of 104 studies (79 percent) found lower rates among those scoring higher on spiritual involvement.93

In the systematic review described above, a total of 444 quantitative studies were identified that examined the relationship between religious/spiritual involvement and depression.97 Nearly two-thirds of the studies (272, or 61 percent) found that spirituality was associated with less depression and faster recovery from depression, and that spiritual interventions were effective in reducing depression.98 More recent research involving 9,862 young adults (with the average age of 23) who were followed for as many as six years reported that those attending religious services at least weekly at baseline were nearly one-third less likely to develop a depressive order during the six-year follow-up.99

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