JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Religious support teams from multiple Air Education and Training Command bases taught resiliency enhancing tools to chaplains and chaplain assistants during a conference May 21-23 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph to improve their ministerial and spiritual expertise and to unify their core mission.
Air Force Chaplain (Col.) Steve Schaick, Headquarters AETC command chaplain, administered the three-day conference where 35 delegates from around AETC received classroom training for two days followed by collaborative information-exchange sessions on the last day.
"These tools will then be used in one-on-one counseling sessions, small-group training events and larger gatherings such as commander's calls and Wingman Days," Schaick said. "As a core chaplain group, we must have a clear identity so that we can make a difference that will pay dividends in the future."
Information on improving day-to-day business at chapels was presented, but the conference also addressed pertinent military resiliency issues such as attrition rates, sexual assault and suicide.
"With relationship issues and suicide (in the military) at an all-time high, Chaplain Corps personnel are spending less time focusing on legacy chapel events and placing greater emphasis on unit engagement," Schaick said.
One way to alleviate and sort out the mental, emotional and physical stress of daily living on a personal level is to seek a mentor, Staff Sgt. Lisa Cacao, chaplain assistant from Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, said.
"At one point during your service in the Air Force, tragedy may come knocking at your door," she said. "Help is out there. Don't be afraid to get a mentor."
Sometimes, military members face resiliency issues that are strictly spiritual.
An instance where an Airman needed help getting prayer time during a workday based on his faith was one example of the type of unit engagement chapel associates are promoting, Air
Force Chaplain (Capt.) Joe Fisher from Luke AFB, Ariz., said.
"We want to blend the spiritual components that the chapel brings to resiliency," Fisher said.
While chaplains and their assistants learned techniques to better help military members resolve resiliency issues, one participant believed that inspiring them to be active can help them achieve better fulfillment.
"Challenge your Airmen to go out and do something," Air Force Chaplain (Capt.) Melvin Smith from Keesler AFB, Miss., said, addressing conference attendees. "Our Airmen aren't challenged enough today to do more for their community, their family and their spouse."
Another participant said that when dealing with trying times, finding a solution is a matter of perspective.
"We often associate the 'valley' as the low places in life and the 'mountain tops' as the high places," Air Force Chaplain (Col.) Michael Grubbs from Sheppard AFB, Texas, said. "But it's the low places where the soil is thick and the water is good."
From any experience, good or bad, there is something to be learned, Schaick said.
"Resiliency is not just being able to survive difficulty, but to grow in it and strive for a better tomorrow," he said.