Singapore Armed Forces visits JBLM to Observe H2F Operations

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash.-The U.S. Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) centers host the Singapore Armed Forces on May 6-8, 2024. The visit consisted of Singaporean soldiers and civilians assigned to the Center of Excellence for Soldier Performance (CESP), a development center for maximizing physical output and combat potential for all Singaporean soldiers, in observance of H2F execution in operational units.

The Joint Base Lewis-McChord H2F leadership is ready to share the most effective combinations of individual training programs, using the current resources provided to them for optimizing the output of a Soldier, with foreign and national counterparts.

“With the variety of unit types and sizes here, we wanted to show them how each unit is able to use their available resources to best support their commanders, enhance warfighting, and enable combat-ready formations,” stated U.S. Army Lt. Col. Adam N. Schaffer, the deputy surgeon and H2F program manager with America’s First Corps.

H2F directors across Joint Base Lewis-McChord shared data from each facility which showcases regular physical training strategies, equipment spacing and layout, while also receiving guidance for troubleshooting common physical and mental barriers a Soldier may encounter.

U.S. Army Soldiers must remain physically fit and mentally tough in order to maximize their lethality and readiness (FM 7-22, 3-1). The H2F program optimizes physical and non-physical performance, while minimizing the likeliness of injury. This program also creates outlets for physical rehabilitation in the post-injury stage. Soldiers can track their progress in improving the five domains akin to the program by using the facilities, classes, and personal coaching offered. The five domains of H2F are physical, nutritional, mental, spiritual, and sleep.

The CESP is a centralized facility that focuses on four areas similar to the five domains of H2F: fitness and nutrition; pre-habilitation and rehabilitation; resilience; and soldier systems (wearable technology). Like H2F, CESP aims to maximize the readiness of each soldier. The CESP is very similar to the system of H2F in theory, but in practice, results can vary.

Singapore Armed Forces Senior Lt. Col. Russell Gan, the head of CESP, highlights the importance of proper execution in a program that aims to maximize their soldier’s readiness.

“Strategy is important, but the execution is everything,” stated Gan after a tour of H2F operations, which fortified the team’s strong conceptual understanding of the H2F ecosystem.

“We want to see how the U.S. does it,” explained Grace Heng, the head physical therapist for CESP. She describes the CESP system as comparable to H2F, but there are differences due to it being packaged differently.

“It shows results, we can see those results and see how it works,” said Heng during their walkthrough of the 62nd Medical Brigade’s H2F facility which highlighted Soldiers in the process of improving through physical readiness training, physical therapy, and pregnancy and postpartum physical training.

Senior Lt. Col. Chungren Kee, the Singapore liaison officer with the U.S. Army Training Doctrine Command, explains that there are challenges for CESP in achieving a system of similar scale and accessibility as H2F. The space and manpower readily available are much smaller, so maximizing the effectiveness of a revised program would require workarounds. Magan Ho, a nutritionist for CESP, explained that exact replication of the H2F ecosystem is a challenge for the Singapore team, but there are aspects of the five-domain ecosystem that can be applied to CESP after some adjustments.

“Their observations and lessons learned from JBLM’s H2F journey will help them transition their model,” stated Schaffer. He explained that the SAF visitors can take home the “U.S. Army’s more holistic approach to health, fitness, and readiness.”