Wingman Day focuses on Airmen's mental state

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Nicole Leidholm
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Travis Airmen are scheduled to partake in Wingman Day activities Thursday with an emphasis on the mental pillar of Comprehensive Airman Fitness.

"Wingman Day entails cultivating a Wingman ethos by translating the traditional 'Wingman Concept'," said Capt. Andrea Graves, 60th Medical Operations Squadron aeromedical evaluations and suicide prevention officer. "Originally from the flying community, Wingman Day is an opportunity to utilize skills and behaviors that anyone can relate to and easily utilize on a daily basis which helps to foster better overall health and resilience."

Wingman Day is based on four pillars that cultivate health and well-being, which are the social, spiritual, mental and physical pillars

"Wingman Day is an opportunity for Airmen to learn new ways to manage stress, build resilience and improve quality of life," Graves said. "By understanding the importance of CAF and other key concepts, we can each make positive steps toward improving mental and physical health and overall well-being."

In addition to physical strength, Airmen need to be mentally strong and healthy to manage the rigors of military service.

"We all inevitably face stressors, but by learning ways to manage stress and maintain a balanced lifestyle, we can not only improve performance, we can have greater life satisfaction, feelings of contentment and happiness and improved physical health," Graves said. "By fostering resilience, we can better manage stress, recognize warnings signs and avoid crises. As Airmen, we can encourage each other to foster resilience on a daily basis."

Wingman Day is not the only day for Airmen to be mentally resilient. There are steps they can take to be resilient every day.

"While resilience can come in many forms, I believe the key word is balance," Graves said. "We must balance our professional careers as Airmen with a balanced life. We can achieve balance through physical exercise, engaging in social support and activities, fostering spirituality, maintaining healthy nutrition and adequate sleep, learning stress management techniques, taking breaks and learning to pace ourselves, by utilizing good problem solving and communication skills and by engaging in positive thinking. The key is to take one small step at a time and set goals. A small change can make a huge difference," she said

Wingman Day will be practicing many of these elements of self-care and resilience during the mental pillar, Graves said. These skills can not only be practiced at work and home, but also in the deployed setting. All Airmen can benefit from fostering greater resilience.

Flight points of contact will be provided with four team building and education modules they can implement at their discretion throughout the day to focus on the theme: connect, relax, rejuvenate. The modules include:

· Module 1: Learn stress management and basic relaxation.

· Module 2: Challenging and building mental capacity.

· Module 3: Reducing social isolation by eating together in a non-threatening, low stress environment.

· Module 4: Importance of physical health: encouraging a physical training event to build team connection and focus.

The Airmen and Family Readiness Center, chapel, health and wellness center, fitness center, family advocacy program and mental health clinic here offer a wealth of classes available throughout the year which foster resilience.

According to Tech. Sgt. Joseph Bogdan, 60th Force Support Squadron master resiliency trainer, the A&FRC offers many classes to help Airmen with resiliency, such as Master Resiliency Training, a class that focuses on building the core competencies that contribute to resilience.

"MRT gives you tangible skills that you can use when facing adverse situations," Bogdan said. "This class is also being offered quarterly on Saturdays beginning March 23 to spouses to accommodate different schedules."

The A&FRC also offers:

· 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a three-day course that focuses on improving oneself personally as well as professionally. This course assists members in identifying and focusing on aspects of their lives they can control to achieve their goals.
· Several financial readiness courses that can assist members in becoming more mentally prepared for life's financial adversities through proactive lessons to increase financial planning and literacy as well as dealing with adversities as they arrive.

· The school liaison program alleviates stress reduction as it assists families with smooth academic transitions.

· The transition assistance program assists members with dealing with a time, that to many service members, can be the most frightening time of their lives, transition from active duty to civilian life. This program educates members on their benefits and prepares them for a civilian career.

· The Readiness Expo is a briefing composed of two concurrent briefings, one for the service members and one for the spouse, and focuses on education prior to a deployment as well as supporting both the member and their families during the deployment.

· Key Spouse program educates unit key-spouses resulting in support for unit spouses. Key spouses are integral in assisting with transitions, separations due to deployments and remote tours, as well as improving overall unit morale.

· The Military Family Life Consultant program is an alternative route for members to engage counseling. The MFLCs assist with stress management, marriage counseling, and more, as well providing courses on many different issues such as how to get a good night's sleep. The MFLCs do not keep any records of the meeting and can be reached directly by cell phone at 217-8687 or 217-9442.

The A&FRC programs provide support to enhance all four-pillars of the Comprehensive Airman Fitness program. Visit www.TravisAFRC.com to sign up for courses or call 424-2486 for more information.

A list of these classes, and other resources that help to foster resilience, will be distributed on Wingman Day by Flight POC's.