Comprehensive Airman Fitness develops life skills

Known as Total Force Fitness, it comprises eight domains ranging from physical and environmental to spiritual and social, and views optimal performance as a holistic concept requiring a connection among mind, body, spirit and relationships.

The Air Force has developed its own version of Total Force Fitness called Comprehensive Airman Fitness that provides an integrated framework for seeking fitness in four domains, or pillars: mental, physical, social and spiritual.

“Comprehensive Airman Fitness focuses on developing life skills that Airmen can use throughout their careers and in their lives,” Essie Whitworth-Nurse, Joint Base San Antonio resilience and community support coordinator, said. “It provides a framework of cross-functional education and training, activities and programs that play a big role in ensuring that all Airmen stay fit, resilient and force-ready.”

Air Force Instruction 90-506, which was released in April 2014 and governs Comprehensive Airman Fitness, notes that CAF is not a stand-alone program or specified training class, but “a cultural shift in how we view and maintain fitness in a more comprehensive manner and enables Airmen to hold each other accountable against Air Force Core Values.”

Whitworth-Nurse said CAF incorporates resilience and risk management efforts recommended following the November 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, where an Army major fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others.

CAF, which is designed to enhance the resilience of individuals, families and communities, is now part of the culture at JBSA, where master resilience trainers, or MRTs, and resilience training assistants, or RTAs, deliver individual resiliency skills to Airmen, she said. AFI 90-506 defines resilience as “the ability to withstand, recover and grow in the face of stressors and changing demands.”

CAF’s education component is managed at the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., where the MRT Trainer Course is conducted, Whitworth-Nurse said. Once MRTs complete the two-week course, they return to their installations to train and certify RTAs.

“It’s important to get people inside the unit trained so they can deliver training within the unit,” she said. “We have at least 70 MRTs at JBSA, but that’s not enough. We need one for every 200 people in a unit.”

Whitworth-Nurse said JBSA has about 600 RTAs.

“They can only conduct small groups, 10 people or less,” she said. “But we have a waiver so they can educate up to 25 people.”

JBSA’s master resilience trainers and resilience training assistants teach 11 resiliency skills – which include “Count Your Blessings,” “Good Listening,” “Spiritual Resiliency,” “Physical Resiliency” and “Balance Your Thinking” – at locations throughout the installation on a regular basis, Whitworth-Nurse said.

Base- and unit-level training, which addresses everyday stressors, consists of Individual Resilience Skills Training based on the MRT course curriculum, according to AFI 90-506.

Whitworth-Nurse said each active-duty Airman must complete four hours of IRST per calendar year, which “may be conducted in conjunction with or independently of Wingman Days and/or other CAF or resilience activities,” AFI 90-506 states.

Resilience training is also included as an eight-hour block during the First Term Airman Course.

In addition to education, CAF has a leadership component, Whitworth-Nurse said.

Installation commanders “are responsible for establishing and executing CAF” in compliance with AFI 90-506 and ensuring that “CAF efforts, activities and emphasis for Airmen and families are implemented locally,” according to the instruction.

“All leaders get introduced to CAF at commanders’ courses and command chief courses,” Whitworth-Nurse said. “They are expected to include resiliency skills in their everyday interaction with Airmen.”

Commanders also choose the CAF domain for Wingman Days, she said.

CAF is being added to the curriculum for military training instructors, Whitworth-Nurse said.

“MTIs are certified to be at least resilience training assistants, and some may be master resilience trainers,” she said.

Helping agencies such as military and family readiness centers, chaplain services, mental health flights and family advocacy programs also play key roles in Comprehensive Airman Fitness.

“Community readiness consultants at M&FRCs support the lifestyle and culture of Comprehensive Airman Fitness,” Criselda Guerrero-Smith, JBSA-Randolph Military & Family Readiness Center community readiness consultant, said. “Consultants are versed and trained to assist Airmen and their families in various life transitions.

“Whether the situation presents itself as a short-notice permanent change of station, deduction of pay, employment for a spouse or even separating from the military, consultants stand ready to empower and educate our Airmen to be resilient,” she said. “Comprehensive Airman Fitness is a lifestyle promoting a proactive approach to life situations and we here at the M&FRC stand ready to assist.”

Whitworth-Nurse called CAF “a great initiative” for active-duty members and their families as well as Department of Defense civilians and contractors.

“We want to make sure people have all the tools in their toolbox to cope with life and life’s issues,” she said. “Resiliency skills help them deal with traumatic events and everyday stressors.”