BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Spiritual health is one of the five pillars of the Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program. The Army Chaplain Corps is charged with maintaining that pillar to the highest caliber to ensure Soldiers are spiritually fit -- on and off duty.
Religious support teams throughout Afghanistan met Aug. 19 and 20 at Bagram Airfield for a conference focused on spiritual health and counseling, as well as how each group will carry on as the mission shifts from Operation Enduring Freedom to Resolute Support.
The conference schedule was hectic, but it offered a chance for the RSTs to bond as individual units and as a whole. In addition to lectures, presentations and counseling sessions, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Tony Petros, Combined Joint Task Force-10 and Regional Command-East chaplain, sprinkled in some friendly competition.
"If the RST is able to maintain a healthy competitive spirit throughout the deployment, they will have a positive impact upon the overall spirit of the unit," he said.
Going beyond the normal push-ups, sit-ups and two-mile run routine, Petros and his RST challenged participants to an agility run, pull-ups, metronome push-ups, bench press, medicine ball throw, standing long jump, dips and the multiple-stage fitness test, more affectionately known as the "beep test."
The RSTs participated as individuals, and victors were announced at the prayer breakfast. The breakfast was a bit of a special treat for the RSTs, not because of any fancy cooking, Petros pointed out, but because there aren't too many occasions where a prayer breakfast is provided just for them.
The casual observer may not realize, but the Chaplain Corps is just as competitive as any other, and not just where physical attributes are concerned. Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Dennis Hysom, 1st Cavalry Division and Regional Command-South chaplain, noted this tendency as one focus of the conference.
"We get very compartmentalized in the Army -- my division versus your division," he said. "What Tony (Petros) did was to try to build a team."
Hysom added that the conference allowed chaplains to voice their concerns in a forum that encouraged discussion and problem resolution.
As Petros' counterpart in RC-South, Hysom looked forward to taking this model back to Kandahar and implementing it with his own RSTs.
"We can cross-level support each other," he explained. "The best thing (Petros) did for this conference was breaking down the walls."
Aside from the chaplain's mission, their assistants have a much bigger role to play than guardian angel.
"This is my third conference, and this is the one that has been more focused toward the mission as opposed to just training," said Spc. Robert Guest, a chaplain assistant with Task Force Wings, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Guest spoke about the many challenges facing the chaplaincy in the upcoming transition to Resolute Support.
"We had a lot of information about how to properly handle retrograde, considering that the mission set has changed from our introduction until now in OEF XV," Guest said.
RSTs spoke about the handling and ultimate disposition of religious materials and host nation sensitivities in that endeavor.
"We really were coming to prepare ourselves for future ministry," said Chaplain (Capt.) Christopher Kitchens, who serves with Task Force Muleskinner 10th Sustainment Brigade in RC-North.
As his task force wraps up its mission in Afghanistan, Kitchens said he and his team are prepared for anything that comes their way.
"A lot of times, you just see Soldiers getting restless and ready to get home," he said.
Often, Soldiers experience anxiety about returning home and it can cause carelessness, he added. By gently placing their focus on the mission to be completed, they can maintain motivation and functionality.
Guest and Task Force Wings also are preparing to head home, and besides talking to his fiancée about buying a motorcycle, he is focused on the spiritual health and resiliency of his unit.
"A lot of Soldiers are worn out now," he said. "They've been able to handle it fine for the past seven or eight months, but now that they've been working 16-hour days, there's a part of them that's really exhausted."
He strives to be there for his fellow Soldiers and help them use the resiliency tools they have gained before and throughout the deployment. He said the tools he gained during the conference will help him do just that.
Social Sharing