Fort Jackson school forges resilient communities

By Ms. Elyssa Vondra (Jackson)January 24, 2019

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Resilient Army communities are strong, and the U.S. Army Master Resilience School helps fortify them every day.

Under the direction of the Leader Training Brigade, the school builds up resilience-related skill sets in students.

Active duty Soldiers, members of the Army Reserve and the National Guard, civilians, and even members of the Navy and Marines have turned up for classes.

Students come from across the country and overseas, but roughly 10 to 20 percent of each class is from Fort Jackson.

The hope is that students will spread the knowledge to their units, Families and communities, said the school's director, John O'Rourke.

The lessons teach students how to "grow and thrive in the face of challenges and to bounce back from adversity," the school's definition of resilience, said Keith Allen, the school's primary instructor and one of the students in the initial Master Resilience School pilot program a decade ago.

The goal is to teach the class skills to combat negative thoughts and feelings, continued Master Sgt. Temika Jenkins, who does administrative work at the school. "It improves morale."

Resilient leaders can more quickly bounce back from illness and get back to normalcy after deployments, Jenkins added. Resilience prepares them mentally for challenges they can already conquer physically.

The school's lessons in resilience expand beyond students to Fort Jackson as a whole, O'Rourke added.

"It just folds on itself and then it expands," said Staff Sgt. Sara Garrett of Springfield, Missouri, a level one student in the course.

Level one students embark on a two-week entry level class, the Master Resilience Training Course. It teaches them the fundamentals of the resilience curriculum.

Garrett described the process as a "trickle down effect."

The resilience skills are "not just for you," said her classmate Capt. James Rettig, a brigade nurse counselor of the 3rd Brigade Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Drill sergeant students are tasked with training the material to their Basic Combat Training Soldiers when they return to their units, O'Rourke said.

The course is really about the Soldier, he added, and drill sergeants "leave an impression on that young Soldier."

Most Soldiers remember their drill sergeants even when they retire, O'Rourke said, and drill sergeants have the first chance to mold trainees.

Other leaders in the class bring what they learn home with them.

Staff Sgt. Alton Croslin said the training taught him better ways to respond to challenging situations, especially in the Family atmosphere. He says he has "a lot of apologizing" to do.

Garrett added that being able to "hunt the good stuff" will improve her home life. She described it as "finding those little nuggets of positivity" throughout the day, whether that be going for a run, as Garrett said was her definition the day before, or drinking a great cup of coffee in the morning.

Croslin has already been pushing the message of resilience to his Family while attending the training.

With lesson material in mind, Croslin said he has been sending texts to his teenage sons that say things like "Keep it simple," and "Make today your bounce back day."

Resilience improves personal lives, which carries over to work lives, Jenkins said. That "supports overall readiness in an organization."

It means the mission can be accomplished more easily and more willingly, she added.

"I think in the Army we focus a lot on our equipment," said Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Ward, a Master Resilience School facilitator-in-training.

Resiliency skills implore leaders to search deeper to uncover what is really going on with their trainees, peers or Family members. It helps them take care of one another, Ward continued.

"We never ask how are you doing (in the Army)," Rettig agreed.

Being resilient means asking more questions about things like Soldiers' stress and how they feel when they come home from deployment, Rettig continued.

His motto is that if you take care of the Soldier, everything else will take care of itself.

The school has spread a similar message of resilience to the off-post community.

One facilitator at the Master Resilience School is a pastor in a Columbia church, so he puts the message out to the entire congregation, Jenkins said.

Other graduates have been members of law enforcement from Richland County and police officers from the University of South Carolina.