ACC conducts Strong Bonds event in Texas

By Mr. Larry D Mccaskill (Army Contracting Command)October 2, 2014

Strengthening bonds
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Almost 20 Army Contracting Command Soldiers and their spouses recently spent a weekend in Galveston, Texas, working on their communication skills as part of the Strong Bonds program.

According to the program website, Strong Bonds is a unit-based, chaplain-led program that assists commanders in building individual resiliency by strengthening the Army family. The core mission of the Strong Bonds program is to increase individual Soldier and family member readiness through relationship education and skills training.

According to Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Paige Heard, ACC command chaplain, Strong Bonds is conducted in an offsite retreat format in order to maximize the training effect. The retreat provides a fun, safe and secure environment in which to address the impact of relocations, deployments and military lifestyle stressors.

"This Strong Bonds weekend included six hours of classroom learning and four hours of application learning outside of the classroom," said Heard. "They learned communication skills this weekend and took time outside of the classroom to put these skills into practice."

According to Heard, the curriculum is based on more than 30 years of research and specifically tailored for military couples.

"Events like Strong Bonds are part of the Ready and Resilient Campaign," said Heard. "This training prepares Soldiers and their spouses to handle the effects of military life."

Some of those effects Heard said are long separations from loved ones, trauma of combat, multiple deployments and relocating every two to three years.

The training addresses issues such as physical safety, emotional safety, commitment safety, community safety and communication skills. The chaplain said in relationships mutual understanding is the goal, not winning arguments.

Lt. Col Dennis McGowan, Mission and Installation Contracting Command chief of staff, said the event was something he highly recommends Soldiers try to attend.

"Do they want to have improved interpersonal communication skills?" he asked. "If yes, go. I expected and received time with my spouse and other families where we all focused on maintaining our marriages. The foundation of our Army is the individual Soldier family. Anything to support the Army's families supports the Army mission."

For Sgt. 1st Class Domingo Rodriguez, the event was a time to concentrate on his family and continue to build on his relationships.

"I wanted my wife and I to better understand our relationship and to see we are not alone in dealing with family issues," he said. "This event showed us that regardless of rank there is always room for self improvement in relationships and it is not always targeted lower enlisted."

Newlyweds Staff Sgt. Francisco and Tiffanie Hernandez thought some of the techniques will come in handy in the days to come.

"I believe this will help our new marriage by providing the tools and techniques in establishing effective communication, understanding and overcoming preconceived expectations," said the staff sergeant.

His wife said remembering to appreciate each other for the small things will help to reinforcing their marriage.

"By using the tools discussed during the training we will be well on our way to a strong, loving and lasting marriage," said Tiffanie Hernandez. "Two of the biggest takeaways from this event were learning the communication techniques (effectively and actively listening) and realizing that some expectations we have can be unreasonable."

Heard said those tools can help Soldiers and their families build and sustain their relationships.

"These training events build up the Soldier's resiliency and provide useful skills for work, family or marital relationships. After the training the Soldier is better prepared to maintain healthy relationships," she said. "This should reduce the number of family relationship problems, therefore making the Soldier more able to successfully carry out the unit's mission."

Heard said the goal is to conduct five events at different locations during fiscal year 2015, with the next event held on the U.S. east coast during the first quarter of fiscal year 2015. She said there are plans to conduct similar training for single Soldiers.