Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan

By Sgt. 1st Class David Wheeler (USFOR-A Public Affairs)January 21, 2015

Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
1 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
2 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
3 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
4 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
5 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
6 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Soldiers Engage in SHARP Training in Afghanistan
7 / 7 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Members of 5-5 Air Defense Artillery changed the usual way to present SHARP training, and combined games, exercise, and obstacle courses to encourage a healthy competition that focused around SHARP and resilience lessons on Bagram Airfield, Afghanist... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Jan. 19, 2015) -- Sexual harassment and sexual assault violate everything the Army stands for.

Deployed leaders from the 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, recently gathered their Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention, or SHARP, representatives to aggressively tackle training, but in a way that Soldiers would remember it.

"We all understand death-by-PowerPoint; that's not what we are looking for today," said 1st Sgt. Lacey Clayton, first sergeant for A. Co. 5/5 Air Defense Artillery or ADA. "We are looking to get people energized and to be motivated about what they are learning. We found that as they are moving around and are active, they are actually receiving the message instead of just zoning out and looking at slides over and over."

This two-day event was broken into five events that coincided with a short lesson before the activity that related to SHARP, resiliency, or team building.

"We have SHARP Jeopardy, we have an intervention challenge which consist of intervening in time before your teammate fails out on burpees," Clayton said. "We have a great team building activity where teammates are blindfolded and one of the team members has to talk them through the obstacles. We also have the team tire flip, and a Pictionary type game that gets them to describe things with pictures and get the team to try to understand what it is they are talking about."

Throughout every event to include the burpee challenge (an intense exercise that combines push-ups and squat jumps into one physically demanding workout) the smiles and laughter were overwhelming.

"I prefer this over regular classes by far," said Spc. Alexander Alvillar, Firefinder Radar Operator with 5/5 ADA. "It's more interactive, it helps get the information across, it is easier to learn and remember, and it's fun."

Each event was timed or had a score attached to it so at the end of the competition, a winning team could be named, but in the end, every participant took something from the training.

"Bottom line is you have to think outside of the box," Clayton said. "These guys are learning a lot, they are enjoying it, and they are going to remember what they learned today because it was something different."

Related Links:

Army.mil: Inside the Army News

Army.mil: Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention and Response Program

Stand-To! Sexual Harrassment/Assault Prevention

Army SHARP Annual Unit Refresher Training

USFOR-A Facebook

More photos of the event on Flickr