The outdoors: a chance for military families to find renewal and solace

FORT BRAGG, NC, UNITED STATES

04.02.2009

Story by Spc. Benjamin Watson 

49th Public Affairs Detachment   

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FORT BRAGG, N.C. – For Soldiers returning from deployment, reintegrating back into society can be an unnerving experience. First, there is the highway – horns, loose fan belts, aggressive and distracted drivers. Then there is the chaos and clamor of ringing telephones, the buzz of appliances, the circus of television's flash and noise.

These things can make a person anxious for the peace and quiet of the outdoors.

"There is a natural stress relief that comes from being outside," said Brittany McKee, a representative for the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States.

"Whether hiking through a forest, watching a sunset or simply breathing fresh air, people instinctively turn to the outdoors as a way of relaxing and enhancing their well-being," she said.

Based out of Fort Riley, Kan., McKee is the coordinator for the Sierra Club's Military Families Outdoors program, an organization created to help armed forces personnel and their families renew their bonds through outdoor activities.

"Given the stresses of military life and the heavy burden of multiple, extended deployments, we strongly believe in the mental and physical benefits that come from outdoor experiences," McKee said.

Within a few short months of redeploying from Iraq, Sgt. Kyle Wu, an information management officer with the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, had his rucksack packed and headed out for a weekend in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.

Nowadays, Wu, a native of Saint Charles, Mo., retreats to the outdoors as a break from the "monotony" of staying in the nearby city, Fayetteville, and going to the same places every weekend.

"It's easy to stay in Fayetteville," he said, "You can get stuck in the same rut doing that. But it's nice to get away from all the noise of the city and relax."

Noise is also how Dan Studt, a five-year veteran of the Coast Guard, described the sometimes overwhelming burden of electronic devices like cell phones and computers on his daily life.

"Unplugging" from the noise by going on outdoor expeditions is something Studt said he could not do without.

"Being unplugged is, to me, the biggest benefit of being outdoors," he said.

"At work, you're constantly bombarded by the cell phone and always at its beckon call ... it's great to get away from that."

Studt now works as an admissions advisor for the non-profit outdoor educational organization Outward Bound.

In April 2008, Outward Bound was awarded a $3.5 million grant to serve military veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Those funds were enough to cover the cost of 1,500 service members to participate in Outward Bound's program Expeditions for OEF/OIF War Veterans and Service Members.

The expeditions for veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom include backpacking through the Colorado wilderness, rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park in California, canoeing the Boundary Waters of Minnesota or backpacking through the North Woods of Maine.

"Being out there with a bunch of other vets in a shared outdoor experience, that's therapeutic. That's the sort of work I'm proud to be a part of," Studt said.

But outdoor opportunities, either through an organization or planned by an individual, don't have to be limited just to veterans. Children benefit substantially from outdoor activities, said McKee.

She pointed to a 2005 study by the American Institute of Research which found after a week-long outdoor experience, students demonstrated a 27 percent increase in their science test scores. The same study also found that children gained self-esteem and personal responsibility from outdoor experiences.

"We've witnessed what a difference an outdoor weekend retreat makes for a military family working to reconnect, or how a week of summer camp can rejuvenate a military child dealing with the stress of a parent's deployment," McKee said.