The Pottery scene from “Ghost”… it’s real

Courtesy Photo | SPC Justin Lippert and his wife Elizabeth “getting the feel for the glaze”. (Photo courtesy Fort Drum Warrior Transition Battalion Adaptive Reconditioning Program)  

ARLINGTON, VA, UNITED STATES

10.05.2017

Courtesy Story

Army Recovery Care Program

The Pottery scene from “Ghost”… it’s real
By MaryTherese Griffin, Warrior Care and Transition

ARLINGTON Va. - What does clay, water, a wheel and fire have in common? If you said a picnic off the Chattahoochee River in Georgia you would be correct… that’s not what I’m looking for though. How about it’s a pottery class for soldiers from the 3-85 Warrior Transition Battalion at Ft. Drum N.Y. to help not only with the six pillars of the transition plan to assist in recovering, apparently it helps in the language of love.

According to site coordinators, there has been an increase in spouse participation from the last session in spring because it is offered in the evenings and off post at the Thousand Islands Art Center Pottery studio in Clayton, N.Y. The Ft. Drum Adaptive and Reconditioning team does not need Chuck Woolery to make a love connection…they have a pottery wheel! It seems to be an activity that spouses have been able to engage in and turn into a night out or date night with their spouse.

“One of our couples told us they could not wait for Wednesday evening so that they could go out to dinner on the St. Lawrence River and walk over to the pottery studio to work on clay projects and learn how to use the pottery wheel,” said Occupational Therapist Leslie Milano- Luongo.

Another couple worked on a variety of projects over the eight week session and could not wait to see the finished products once they had been glazed and fired. Glazing and firing is a process that is unique to each individual potter…every potter has his or her own formulation for glazes similar to the process a soldier goes through for reconditioning and adaptation. Everyone is unique and has their own way of recovery, it certainly helps with a partner. In this case the soldier’s partners are gladly getting their hands dirty to marvel at the end result.

Milano- Luongo said “The soldiers and spouses learned so much about this particular technique and enjoyed seeing the finished products.”

Products of pottery or the process of a partner’s support through a process….either way, there is a potential masterpiece in the works!

• Date Taken: 10.05.2017
• Date Posted: 10.05.2017 13:40
• Story ID: 250725
• Location: ARLINGTON, VA, US