FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Temporary travels away from home require concentrated periods of increased foresight -- especially when getting ready for a battlefield.
Hundreds of Fort Carson Soldiers learned a new method to better prepare their Families for abrupt deployments during a 10th Combat Support Hospital readiness fair Tuesday-Wednesday.
Leaders from 10th CSH explained their latest approach for improving readiness, which involves creating a comprehensive source of information for trusted individuals. The unit's Readiness Handbook is a "good continuity binder," said Jackie Place, 10th CSH Family Readiness Group adviser.
She had collected contributions from various FRG leaders, while compiling more than 100 pages, sectioned into 10 tabs, to help Soldiers organize their personal and military records. The emergency tab is mostly created from documents provided by an FRG adviser at 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
"One of the biggest concerns in the Army right now is our nondeployable issues -- this is our method to get them ready," said her husband, Col. Michael Place, 10th CSH commander. He is supplying three- and four-day weekend passes as an incentive plan for Soldiers who complete relevant tabs or the entire handbook.
"If problems crop up, they focus on what's going on back home," said Michael Place. "I want to avoid that at all cost. I want to resource my Soldiers to deploy and be successful; I see that as my role as their commander."
Like more than 150 other 10th CSH Families, the Places are preparing for an approaching mission to Afghanistan. Including assets from roughly 25 hospitals worldwide, such as surgeons, physicians and nurses, Michael Place will lead more than 300 Soldiers into critical medical care facilities located in western provinces.
He has also received notices to deploy the 438th Medical Detachment (Veterinary Services) and 223rd Medical Detachment (Preventive Medicine) within one year.
"I'll have everything I'll need in one book," said Jennifer Eyring, whose husband is assigned to 438th Medical Detachment. The unit had been on standby to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. She said the book serves a purpose beyond planning for his first deployment supporting overseas contingency operations.
"It's going to be our emergency book," said Eyring, a mother of two young children. "We've been trying to get a 72-hour book ready and this is exactly what we needed. We're trying to be better prepared for our kids -- if we're not prepared, how will they be?"
During the past several weeks, 10th CSH leadership interviewed more than 300 Soldiers. They scrubbed their unit's ranks to identify issues needing specialized attention, such as those associated with newlyweds, recent divorces, financial worries, legal actions and children with special needs.
"We're creating Families that are better prepared, better resourced," said Jackie Place, while holding the handbook clipped inside a three-ring binder. The clamped binding permits supplemental paperwork, like legal documents and financial information, next to description pages and completed worksheets.
"This is something they'll be able to keep throughout their careers," said Jackie Place.
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