Resiliency Training

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Because of the demands and pressure of the mission at Minot Air Force Base, resilience training is a high priority. At the unit level, training is in the hands of resistance training assistants, who are coached by master resilience trainers like Technical Sgt. Kenneth Johnson II, fitness program manager for the McAdoo Fitness Center. 

"Our main focus from a base level is to keep up resilience around base, and to empower the units to do the same thing," Johnson said. 

Resiliency training is about teaching individuals to deal with pressure and fight negative conditions like depression. Johnson said that contributors to the wide variety of negative issues that individuals have to deal with are failures in professional communication and a lack of knowledge about available options for seeking help.

"Resilience has become very important here, so we're trying to gather people together and talk about dealing with pressure and making good decisions," Johnson said.

There are five master resilience trainers on base. They're the ones who brief resiliency at First Term Airman's Course, wingman week events, and all calls.

"We want people to know what they can do when they're going through something," Johnson said. "And what they can do to assist if they see someone else going through the same thing."

The approach to resiliency training has evolved over time.

"We're putting more emphasis on initial training," Johnson said. "We're trying to compel a desire for improvement in people who are having trouble, and to give them the tools to make those improvements happen."

"You can sit in a classroom and learn a lot of things, but you need practical application, the opportunity to validate these skills in the workplace or in your personal life," said Cindy Whitesell, community support coordinator. "So you learn it, and then people like Technical Sgt. Johnson and the MRTs and RTAs help you go out and apply it."

Minot is home to a variety of resources for people who are going through difficulties.

"The Airman and Family Readiness Center has an exceptional amount of resources. There's Mental Health, and the chaplains are always there for you," Johnson said. "The first sergeants also have a wealth of knowledge and experience."

Johnson wants people to be able to apply resiliency tools to their military and civilian lives.

"It takes a solid person to realize that they have a problem," he said. "And it takes a strong person to actually start exercising their options to get help and solve that problem."