FORT RUCKER, Ala. (June 11, 2015) -- The Army tries to make sure its Soldiers are prepared for anything, and Fort Rucker plays an important role in that preparedness by facilitating training for not only the Soldiers, but their families as well.
The installation's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school partnered with U.S. Army South to provide reintegration training for family assistance teams who work to reintegrate Soldiers back to normal life following a period of captivity against their will, according to Jim Bryan, family assistance team training lead for Army South.
The three-phase process is used to take the individual who was held captive and return them to a healthy life, he said.
"For the isolated individual, when they come out, depending on how long they've been in captivity, they may have been controlled every minute of every day for a year or more," said Bryan. "Some may not have even spoken English for years, so for them it's very important that they go through the appropriate channels and through a process to reintegrate them into normal lives."
Bryan also said it's important for family members to understand how they can better integrate with their loved one after such an incident, therefore, family assistance teams are utilized to help families during the transition period.
"Many of these Soldiers have been on deployments, and they know the difficult transitions from being on a deployment where they've been able to share letters and write to each other," he said. "In this type of situation, they've not been able to speak to each other for a period of time, so we've got to prepare them for what's going to happen and all the real-world type questions they might have."
This portion is the culmination of training for the family assistance teams, who are dealing with families of Soldiers going through SERE school on Fort Rucker, a process that removes the Soldier from the family for 21 days.
"We make sure that the Soldiers transition back to their loved ones smoothly," said Bryan.
Although the training is invaluable for the reintegration teams, it also serves a dual purpose in preparing some families for a terrible situation.
For Sue Nys, military spouse who participated in the reintegration training, the process has been stressful, but one that she feels is necessary and helpful.
"I think it's important because it gives us a realistic look at how it actually would happen, so I feel a little more prepared should anything actually happen," she said. "It is a little bit scary to hear those things and obviously you never want this to happen, but it's nice to know that they're going to do everything that they can to care for the Soldier and the family."
"It's an eye-opening experience, as well, because you go through this and you don't realize how much goes into bringing a Soldier back and the emotional distress involved --not just for the (spouses), but the community and the other family members," added Amanda Cole, military spouse and fellow participant. "It helps to know what the Soldier has gone through because they've got to bring that baggage home with them."
Lindsay Dunne, another participant in the training, said she finds solace in the fact that what they are doing is helping Soldiers and families who might go through that type of scenario.
"I feel good that we're helping out because they're going to be working with future families, so it's for progress," she said. "I'm not normally somebody who likes to be involved in things, but I actually enjoyed it because I knew that it was something that was helping something bigger than myself. I was happy to be a part of it."
Related Links:
USAACE and Fort Rucker on Twitter
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