FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii -- 8th Special Troops Battalion troops and their Families wrapped up a month dedicated to resiliency and suicide prevention training with a morning hike up the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail, Sept. 26.
The unit hosted more than 10 training sessions at the Aliamanu Military Reservation Chapel here and at Schofield Barracks throughout September, providing an opportunity for its 500+ Soldiers to share active conversations about suicide prevention and resiliency tools.
Resiliency is something the troops constantly promote throughout their ranks, but September was National Suicide Prevention Month, and this year's Army theme for the month was "Enhancing Resiliency -- Strengthening Our Professionals."
The hike was a great way to do just that by brining everybody together, outside of their normal duty-day environments, and continuing the month's discussions, said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Strnad, the STB's Comprehensive Soldier & Family Fitness Program Manager and lead for the hike.
"The most important part of the hike was being able to open the event up to the Soldiers Families too," he said. "The resiliency skills are there for both our Soldiers and their Families to use in all parts of their lives."
During the morning event, five Master Resilience Trainers guided discussions designed to educate the hikers on how to be Army fit and foster essential resilience-building techniques to overcome setbacks and promote personal and professional growth.
Strnad said the idea is to embrace and integrate these principles and tools into daily life.
The MRTs each described their favorite resiliency skills and shared examples of how they apply that skill in their day to day life, for example; how to "hunt the good stuff" to find the positive in things, various goal setting techniques, and how to identify thoughts about an activating event and the consequences of those thoughts.
Single and married Soldiers of all ranks agreed that the physical side of the hike mixed with the skills discussed, made it the ultimate example of a resiliency strengthening event.
"We'll continue to have these kinds of hikes and Family events," he said. "But our troops did great this month as we really pushed our resiliency efforts to another level together."
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