WASHINGTON–The Army is hoping a new program will better equip its soldiers for combat, though the initiative has nothing to do with physical training, new gear or high-end vehicles.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, a training program based on more than 30 years of scientific research, attempts to arm soldiers and military families with the sort of psychological skills needed to process and cope with repeated deployments and sustained military operations.
Lt. Col. Sharon McBride, a Comprehensive Soldier Fitness research psychologist, said the program was created as a response to seeing “a really taxed force.” She said that although the military is shifting the way it views psychological issues, the initiative is not a form of mental health treatment.
“We don’t talk about the program in terms of mental health,” McBride said. “It’s really a program in the realm of training. What we’re about is helping soldiers and providing them with better tools. We’re making them stronger with a series of resilience-building skills so that they’re better able to cope.”
The program is made up of four different components: an online survey, which is a yearly requirement for all soldiers, a series of online training courses called Comprehensive Resilience Modules, a 10-day training course called the Master Resilience Trainer Course and targeted resilience training that happens throughout a soldier’s career.
The courses focus on what McBride called resilience skills, which include concepts like putting things into perspective and learning how to control emotional responses to traumatic events.
“What we’re teaching are life skills and skills for well-being,” McBride said. “Holistically, they are skills that are applicable to many different aspects of your life, from a reaction to a combat event or a reaction to your child being upset about something. It’s much broader than just a combat situation.”
Master Sgt. Jennifer Loredo, who leads the CSF program at Fort Bragg, said she knows from personal experience how important it is to learn coping tools. In June of last year, Loredo’s husband died while he was deployed in Afghanistan. She is now raising their two children on her own.
“The Army is showing its people that they are worth the time and effort and the whole mind-shift,” she said.
Loredo said that almost nothing, including resilience training, would have helped her process the initial grief of losing her husband. But the skills taught in the CSF program helped her deal with the stress, confusion and anxiety that followed in the months after his death. She learned how to confront her feelings and process them in a healthy way.
“The initial shock is over,” she said. “But in all honesty, I really, truly use the things that I’ve learned in this training on a day-to-day basis. Whether it’s with my kids, the stresses of work, having everything on myself, having no partner there to help. . . this stuff helps me every day.”
According to Loredo, many soldiers refuse to ask their supervisors for help when they’re facing issues at home or at work. The program aims to teach those soldiers and their families that instead of suffering silently, they can tap into resilience skills.
“Maybe a couple times a week I just feel like I have so much on me,” Loredo said. “The house needs to be cleaned, I’m falling behind a work, the kids need my attention—I feel myself getting super freaked out and stressed out.”
She’s learned that when that chain of anxiety begins, she needs to focus on the positive and put things into perspective.
“I have to prioritize it all,” Loredo said. “So I ask myself, okay what’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t clean the bathroom today? Nothing catastrophic is going to happen if I don’t cut the grass by Friday.”
Loredo said she hopes the program empowers soldiers with the skills they need to get through the stresses of military life.
“You will realize that you have the strength inside to cope,” she said. “People just need some help finding that confidence and strength.”
