Resiliency - a personal story

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Alfonzo Evans Jr.
  • 60th Medical Support Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  I appreciate the opportunity to write this article and share with you a personal experience of how resiliency training helped me. According to the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, resiliency is the ability to withstand, recover and grow in the face of stressors and changing demands. In 2011, I received notification for a deployment to Iraq. At the same time, my older brother, Teofilo, was working as a civilian and received a job offer from Lockheed Martin. The job entailed specialized training and the opportunity to work at one of the forward operating bases in Afghanistan. This was very exciting. I was going to be deployed at the same time as my brother. This was a good scenario; we would be close to each other and be physically separated by only one country. I would be there for him and he would be there for me while we served away from home.

Things went well for the first few months. It was cold in both of our locations so there was less activity from insurgents attacking the bases. Unfortunately, as the weather warmed up so did the frequency of attacks. Fast forward to an early evening in April 2011, I was heading home when the alarms went off and I hit the ground. Moments later, our hospital took a direct rocket strike to the roof of our facility. I was startled by a loud boom and the facility violently shaking. Fortunately, no one else was hurt. Within a few minutes, we proceeded to move our patients out of the facility. Once the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team swept our facility and gave us the "all clear," we surveyed the damage and worked into the early morning to restore operations. I was amazed at the team work and support everyone had for each other to include our Army brethren.

Thankfully, the resiliency training we received each month from our mental health personnel played a huge part in the way we reacted to the unfortunate circumstance. The next day, I spoke to my brother and he could tell something was different in my voice. I could not divulge what happened, only my concerns on attacks increasing due to the warmer weather. He assured me things were worse at his location and to hang in there, everything would be okay. He was right. Everything was going to be okay because my big brother said so.

I talked to my brother regularly over the next two weeks when the unthinkable happened. We didn't have cellular phones, so I and a few other personnel were given pagers. Early one evening, my pager went off. That is odd. The message received read, "SMSgt Evans, please contact the Emergency Room." When I called, I was told to report in and given a message to call my mother. Oh my goodness, what happened? I called my mother and she was crying and I could barely understand her. Your brother... your brother is dead...I felt my world crumbling as I dropped the phone and I could not contain my tears. It felt like five minutes, but I managed to compose myself and get back on the phone with my mom. My brother was killed in the late afternoon by a rocket attack.

The next few days, I waited for my brother's body to be retrieved and flown back to the United States. In the meantime, I had the utmost support from my deployed family. The Mental Health Flight, the chaplain, my unit, and wing leadership were all there to support me. I had 45 days remaining for my deployment when the wing leadership wanted to send me home permanently. I begged and pleaded for them to please let me come back. I wanted to continue to serve, finish my tour, and be as close as possible to where my brother died. I don't think I would have had the strength to fly home and return 11 days later if I didn't have the resiliency training to strengthen my mental state of mind.

I know resiliency training can help no matter where you serve and against the adversity you might face. Sometimes, the most senior leaders to our newest members can use help from time to time. Don't be afraid, listen and use the training to help yourself be a good wingman to friends, co-workers and most importantly family.