WIESBADEN, Germany – The U.S Army Garrison Wiesbaden Army Substance Abuse Program hosted a Resiliency Paintball Challenge event and tournament on Sept. 30 at the paintball fields on North Clay Kaserne.
In its second iteration, this year’s event included paintball, archery, air-soft rifle practice, giant dart games and a variety of local organizations and educational outlets for folks to engage with.
The ASAP staff spotlighted strategies to strengthen teams and community ties and showcased the variety of resources available to service members, civilians, families and retirees.
Matt Murcin, Army Substance Abuse program chief spoke of his personal connections to suicide and suicide prevention.
"This is really great, doing this for September Suicide Prevention Month and this topic is something that is really near and dear to my heart."
Jason Mohilla, Army Substance Abuse coordinator, took time to educate the crowd on valuable resilience and suicide intervention skills and reminded them to look out for one another as current events such as the ongoing COVID pandemic and recent Afghanistan military withdrawal continues to impact people’s mental health.
Mohilla, who provides regular ASAP training to the garrison workforce, explained the Army’s program and concept called “ACE.” ACE stands for “Ask, Care and Escort.”
“If you are concerned about somebody, we want you to approach that person and ask them a direct question – ‘Are you thinking of hurting yourself? Are you thinking of committing suicide?’” Mohilla says the reason we want people to ask these direct questions is because you’re more likely to get a direct and honest answer from them.
Mohilla said that once we get an honest answer, then we can better care for that person and escort them to a source of professional help.
“Dig into them a little bit, find out what’s going on with them, help them out – and figure out what resources you can bring them to or how you can get them the help that they need.”
The escort portion of the ACE program emphasizes staying with the person needing help and not leaving them alone until they are connected with the right help.
With over 12 paintball teams and variety of unit representation in attendance, the resiliency event was well attended on a day of blue skies and crisp, fall temperatures.
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