FORT DRUM, N.Y. (April 7, 2016) -- Most of the command teams and family readiness leaders within the 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade got together Thursday for a discussion about family readiness group-related subjects during its "Muleskinner Roundup" at the Main Post Chapel.
This was the first time since its redeployment from Afghanistan that the brigade got together for a family readiness symposium. It also is preparing for a time when more family readiness support assistants will transition out of the battalions and brigades, and command teams will rely more and more on building on the systems that were established through the years.
"Today's goal is to get away from work and home and to be able to focus on family readiness issues," said Dr. Debra Gillum, 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade family readiness adviser. "We want to be able to use this as a springboard for new ideas."
Col. David Gillum, 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade commander, opened the day by stressing the importance of family readiness through the story of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment's battle in la Drang, Vietnam, and how the Army was just "not prepared" for the losses it took. From both the book and then the movie, "We Were Soldiers," he retold the story of Julia Moore's crusade of taking upon herself to deliver the telegrams to Families of the fallen.
"Families can do more to help other Families than every agency the Army has -- it starts with the FRG," he told the assembly. "I'm not predicting (the loss of Soldiers' lives), but because it's possible, we have to do this."
The symposium broke down company teams into groups to cover four topics: A -- Command, Family Readiness Support Assistants, Family Readiness Leaders and FRG Relationships; B -- Fundraising / Informal Funds; C -- Role of the FRG; and D -- Volunteer Management. During each one-hour session, classes and discussions were led by subject-matter experts, Gillum or Dr. Gina Di Nola, brigade family readiness support assistant.
The symposium was exactly what incoming company commander, Capt. Steven Lenk, of the 760th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), needed while joining his unit.
He recalls his time as a young lieutenant on rear detachment in a previous command with a "fractured" FRG, when he and others had to work hard to battle low Family involvement and a nonexistent company FRG staff during a tough deployment. In one instance, he had a pregnant Family Member who went into labor alone.
"We had to scramble around to see if anyone could help," he recalled sadly. "If we had a stronger FRG, we probably wouldn't have had that issue."
Lenk said he will take things from the symposium to continue to build on the FRG he's going to take over. He said he realizes he has inherited a very good FRG, but the discussions raised issues that he had not encountered in depth in his military experience or in the Captains Career Course.
"They covered some of the things vaguely but nothing to this extent," he said as a recent CCC graduate.
For 1st Sgt. Catita Prather, of the 226th Signal Company, the symposium was educational. Prather has always understood the relationship between family readiness and mission readiness, and she said if a Soldier's Family is not being taken care of, the Soldier's head is not in the game.
Her relatively small unit has a majority of young, single Soldiers, so their command team focuses events around them, but through discussions from the symposium, they thought about involving the Soldiers' parents more than they might have in the past.
"Just because they are far way doesn't mean they can't still be involved," Prather said.
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