How Sergeants Major 's Can Affect Change

Psychological support for troops has emerged as a necessity because this kind of work can deal, to a considerable extent, with a set of specific psychological problems arising within disciplinary systems at all levels, not the lower echelons alone, as is often believed. Occasionally it is just the matter of an enlistee being unprepared for discipline-abiding lifestyle (ignorance of army regulations, orders and regulatory documents). Sometimes, however, psychological problems stem from clearly expressed anti-disciplinary attitudes in some or other serviceman, which attitudes tend to disorganize military activities, mixing, and off-duty routine.

MRT is part of Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, CSF2, program. It is designed to build the resilience and enhance the performance of those who serve by giving them the skills to thrive, not just in the Army life, but also within their personal lives. This is all accomplished while meeting a wide range of operational demands. MRT has often been misunderstood and overlooked as a program in the Army. When implemented properly, it provides soldiers skills that can be applied in a day to day capacity. Resiliency is a prized commodity within the Army. MRT is a crucial instrument in developing leaders and soldiers in today’s Army.

The concept is about understanding our troop’s reaction after returning from the war. Mainly external attributions have the most impact on our post-traumatic stress syndrome and any possibilities disorder occurred with them after returning from the war (Costello, 2014). The articles explained about the most extensive training taking place and they are trained to fight and combat on the war. This has caused them to traumatized mainly by fear and other factor about hiding, destroy the enemies. The main concern is about these troops having been trained to eliminate the enemies’ troop. Another important traumatized cause these troop to be intimidating is witness another wounded, destroy by the enemies. The other concern is being capture by the enemies and these individual could have possible been mistreat and sometime executed. Overall these element has cause them to be fear and cautious as they return back to the civilization.

Many combat veterans return with mental health needs that can complicate educational achievement. In addition to specific disorders such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, combat veterans experience psychosocial disruption as they rapidly transition from the role from warrior to that of student. (Sachs, 2008, p.1)

Fifteen years of continuous combat deployments have strained many of our Soldiers to their breaking point. To ensure the continued readiness of the troops and the welfare of their families, the use of positive psychology and MRT can bridge the gap and prevent many issues from becoming more serious. The tri-signed letter by Gen Odierno in March of 2013, states the United States Army’s ready and resilient campaign will, “…improve the physical, psychological, and emotional health in order to enhance individual performance and increase overall unit readiness.” Dedicated leader involvement specifically from the Command Sergeant Major (CSM), or Sergeant Major (SGM) is the single most critical component in fostering a positive command climate through

During this time of war, military personal faced with deployments and unfortunate events that lead them to physical and meatal disabilities. Many of military personal come back home with wounds that leave mental scarfs and then have to confront society alone. This often leads them to deal with more distressful situations, and in many cases leads to unfortunate outcomes. The wounded worrier program works with these individuals to help them back into society with an easy transition. Some of the problems that they have to deal are PTSD, stress, depression, physical limitations that can lead to even suicidal tendencies. The wounded worrier program has many programs that can help military personal to work with these difficulties. One of them is the physical health and wellness that is designed “to reduced stress, combat depression and promote an overall healthy and active life style.” (Wounded Warrior Program 2014) The program works with these warriors in trying to get them involved with sports that “…allow [the] warriors living with cognitive, emotional, and/or physical impairments to engage in local community-based activities to help overcome both visible and invisible injuries.” (Wounded Warrior Program 2014) The program also works with them by following a list, to keep them focus and motivated with the fitness activity they pick. In addition helping them having an easily assessable and reachable goal.

When a soldier comes home from their deployment, whether it be their first or fourth, they go through an extreme amount of pressure and stress as they go through a transition back into being a civilian. Many soldiers experience some sort of mental or physical injury while they were deployed, and many last forever if they are not treated properly. According to Issues and Controversies (Facts on File), in 2011, roughly 320,000 veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had experienced a traumatic brain injury while they were deployed. In addition, 300,000 veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have suffered from PTSD and/or depression. To add to the mental ailments veterans suffer from, many also live with physical injuries that impair their

Stress encountered during combat is often severe and life threatening. Many combat veterans report having been attacked or ambushed at some point during their deployment (Milliken, Auchterlonie, & Hoge, 2007). These stressors are unique to combat, likely resulting in unique needs of combat veterans from deployment.

Recovery Teams (RTs) should collaborate with the RCC and other RT members to develop the comprehensive recovery plan (CRP), evaluate its effectiveness in meeting the RSM’s goals, and readjust it as necessary to accommodate the

The United States Army’s master resilience training is used to grow and thrive in the face of challenges and bounce back from adversity. Build core competencies that enable mental toughness, optimal performance, strong leadership, and goal achievement (Reivich & CSF2, Master Resilience Training Version 3.1 Participant Guide, p. 7). The Master Resilience Training (MRT) course is a 10 day course split into two sections. In section one the students go through all 14 modules as if learning MRT for the first time. Once the students have an understanding of what the topics are and how they apply the students move on to the Train the Trainer phase. In this phase the students are split into small groups and will go over all 14 modules again but

Military Resilience Building Programs. Each of the military services have executed resilience building programs to train service members how to react and cope with highly demanding and stressful situations, so they can still perform their military mission uninterrupted. The military’s attention to resilience as a trait of personal strength may in reality serve to stop personnel from reporting sexual assault, as they don’t want to be perceived as being weak and unable to solve their own problems. (Castro 2015)

A service member’s emotional and psychological issues are not like malfunctions of a piece of equipment and must not be treated as a troubleshooting problem in a technical manual. And yet this seems to be the only way the military, as a whole, knows how to address the issue of a service members mental health. It requires a holistic approach that is not currently embraced by the military. Historically, the military has been ill-equipped to handle the shifting nature of the psychological issues created by introducing a service member to the battlefield.

“Battlemind”, is a concept that refers to the training military members receive in order to help them face fear, adversity, and hardship during combat in order to help them fight and win. This concept affects service members while being deployed, because even with the extensive amount of training, they still will experience combat or operational related stresses. The objective of “battlemind” training is to develop psychological resiliency which contributes to a Soldiers will and spirit to fight and win in combat, therefore reducing combat stress reactions and symptoms. Even though training may reduce stress reactions and symptoms, many soldier’s still are impacted by this stress. According to a study done by The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, before deployment many soldiers fear that they will come back from service with mental health issues. Due to this fact only 10-20% of Soldiers report post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following combat which can result in combat stress can lead to excessive alcohol use and aggression.

The long term resilience training evaluation is the key evaluation of resilience training as PTSD research shows that some soldiers do tend to relapse back to their non-resilient state when they are not fully restored emotionally (Davydov et al., 2010; Meredith et al., 2011;

A nonexperimental research study was conducted to explain and predict hypervigilance in the returning soldier. Specifically, the researchers aimed to determine if military training is associated with hypervigilance, if trauma alone can produce higher levels of hypervigilance, if soldier deployment is associated with hypervigilance, and if disorders (depression, dissociation, and PTSD) predict hypervigilance above and beyond trauma and deployment.