Photo By Master Sgt. Ben Navratil | Private 1st Class Linaeja White, a medic with Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Infantry...... read more read more
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The morning dawned like most mornings in coastal Georgia, muggy and hot even before sunrise. A person could only walk a few steps out of their car before quickly being covered in a thin film of sweat. And on top of that, the dark clouds above threatened to burst open into a storm at any minute
The roughly 130 women who showed up at daybreak with packed rucksacks weren’t deterred by a little humidity and rain though.
The Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade kicked off their Women’s Mentorship Network program June 2, in a tough race across Fort Stewart, Ga. Thirteen teams made up of all female Soldiers flipped tires, carried weighted litters, ran through the Marne Mile obstacle course, and completed several other grueling physical and mental challenges in a contest to not only build strength and resiliency, but also team work.
“It was a real challenge,” said Pvt. 1st Class Linaeja White, a medic with Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Inf. Div. Sust. Bde.
Team leaders had been identified previously, and had some idea of what the course would consist of. The teams, however, were chosen at random just before the start, so many of the teammates didn’t know each other.
“It put me in the mindset of Basic Training,” said White, who’s been in the Army less than a year, and has barely been at this unit for two months. “I’m going into a challenge, but I don’t know anyone on my team.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Shontina Edwards, the 3rd Inf. Div. Sust. Bde. Senior Enlisted Advisor, organized the event and explained what the Soldiers would have to do at each station along the course. Then with a wave of her hand, all the Soldiers were off and running.
Each team started at a different location on the course. Some began at the one-mile run, where they had to carry a 25-pound medicine ball and trade it off between team members while running. Some started at the circuit training field, where they had to flip heavy tires, carry litters, or lift barbells while being quizzed on unit history. Still others grabbed their rucks and marched off to the Marne Mile, where they would have to overcome obstacles like monkey bars, mud pits, high walls, and so on.
The rain started shortly after.
“We all had to help each other out,” said White. “I always struggle to cross the monkey bars. But this time I saw the people that were good at them go through first, then come back around to help the ones that needed help.”
“It’s not only about the physical portion,” said Edwards, “it’s also about team building. These events are very strenuous. Everyone will have to work together.”
Once all the teams had completed the course, Edwards sat down with them over breakfast to get feedback on the event, as well as foster an open discussion on what challenges these Soldiers face as females in a male-dominated profession.
“The goal of the Women’s Mentorship Network is to provide a forum for female Soldiers to learn and grow together,” said Edwards. “It’s not necessarily about female-to-female mentorship, it’s about females receiving mentorship.”
As a female command sergeant major, Edwards said she often gets asked to host formal mentorship sessions for the females in the unit.
“That’s not how mentorship works,” she said. “I don’t want to just do a session here and there.”
So she came up with the idea to create the brigade’s Women’s Mentorship Network program. She hopes that putting these Soldiers in a challenging environment will help them open up to each other and assist each other, not just on the obstacle course but in regular day to day business as well.
She also wanted to introduce the Soldiers to “Lean In Circles,” an online non-profit group created by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in order to “empower all women to achieve their ambitions,” according to its website, LeanIn.org.
Lean In Circles are small networks of women who meet online or in person and help mentor each other in their personal and professional lives. Edwards hopes to create a network within the Sustainment Brigade to empower female Soldiers to work together and lift each other up through challenges and hard times.
Eventually, Edwards hopes the program will encompass the entire 3rd Infantry Division.
“Right now the focus is just on the brigade,” she said, “but once it kicks off I’ll find a way to get the word out to the rest of the division.”
Edwards has more plans to push the females in the brigade. She’s planning a long ruck march followed by a stress-fire, and another event where she has the team leaders from today lead groups of all-male Soldiers through a similar course.
“We’re putting them in different settings,” said Edwards. “We’re breaking them down into groups they may not know and seeing how they communicate and bring those teams together.”
This story was originally published on page 3A of the June 8, 2017, edition of the Fort Stewart "Frontline." It can be found at http://media.morristechnology.com/upload/fortstewart/paperpdfs/174/paper_pg_003.pdf
| Date Taken: | 06.02.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.06.2017 09:38 |
| Story ID: | 236489 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 161 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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