Chaplain discusses spiritual readiness at resiliency breakfast

Photo By Sgt. Michael Roach | Spc. Tracie Sanders, a religious affairs specialist with Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, prepares food to be served during a resiliency breakfast at the Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion Headquarters, on Fort Riley, Kansas, March 16. Sanders was responsible for much of the events organization and logistics. (Sgt. Michael C. Roach, 19th Public Affairs Detachment)  

FORT RILEY, KS, UNITED STATES

04.03.2018

Story by Sgt. Michael Roach 

19th Public Affairs Detachment

FORT RILEY, Kansas – Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, hosted a resiliency breakfast at their battalion headquarters on Fort Riley, Kansas, March 16, with guest speaker Maj. Christopher Weinrich, 1st Infantry Division Artillery chaplain.
“This morning I want to talk about motivation and resiliency; those are big words that we have in the military nowadays,” Weinrich, a St. Louis, Missouri, native said to the crowd of Soldiers in attendance. “If we think of motivation or we think of resiliency out there, it’s not just the NCO or the Soldier leading the cadence that is out there yelling and being loud. But it’s ‘how am I going to continue to help the team that I am on to succeed in the mission?’ Those are great areas to look at in our own life for motivation to stay resilient.”
Weinrich also discussed the importance of spiritual readiness, how it relates to resilience and where it originates within an individual.
“Spiritual readiness brings Soldiers to a realization of a spiritual, moral and ethical need in their life,” Weinrich said. They do so “through their own personal religious beliefs, maybe growing up in their family or growing up in a church or a different religious belief system. Also in the military, working with Soldiers allowing them to see that ‘I need to have good morals in my life in order to complete the mission and remain ready.’”
Readiness begins with a Soldier’s family, according to Weinrich.
“That’s a good starting point to help build readiness in Soldiers — the family and making those good decision with ethics and morals, maturing our religious beliefs,” he said. “One of the things I really like about Fort Riley here is that the leaders push for strong families and resiliency in our spouses and our kids.”
Weinrich, who spent two years with 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., before moving to DIVARTY, understands the high operations tempo that modern Army units are keeping.
“It’s busy — it’s busy everywhere in the Army,” he said. “It’s busy here at Fort Riley. As Soldiers we use our spiritual readiness out there with those starting points, our families. You build the readiness by going into training. You can’t just sit in a meeting… you have to go out there and act.”
Ensuring Soldiers are resilient and spiritually ready for the challenges they face while serving in the Army is key to success in the military, according to Weinrich. But for that to happen, Soldiers and their families need to plan for how they are going to handle the challenges they are saddled with.
“It is never too early to plan, because with readiness it can happen at any moment with ‘our nation needs us’ and ‘let’s go,’” he said. “It’s good to start that, and with spiritual readiness, Soldiers can start that with their own individual lives. By constantly maturing in their own religious events, maturing in ethical decisions, moral decisions.”
Weinrich maintains that resilience and readiness are built out of moments, both high and low that are scattered throughout a person’s life.
“My big point for this morning was that when you think of motivation and resiliency, many times we think of one moment that we go through,” Weinrich said. “Maybe a positive moment… or maybe a traumatic moment… Those moments build on our whole lives as we mature and develop as Soldiers. So that’s my big point — I wanted us to realize that as we grow as Soldiers those moments are going to help define who we are. They’re going to strengthen us. Even the negative ones, they’re going to strengthen us.”
This message wasn’t lost on the Soldiers who were in attendance. For some, it helped strengthen their resolve.
“The resilience speech … it makes you think,” said Pfc. Anthony Vacca, originally from Mesa, Arizona, and a wheeled vehicle mechanic with HHBN, 1st Inf. Div. “Coming in here and speaking with the chaplain and listening to him talk about things… he inspired us.”
Other Soldiers found that they gained perspective from the resiliency speech.
“You know you realize sometimes you feel like you’re doing too much, but you’re not actually,” said Spc. Carlos Cabrera, a transmission operator and maintainer with HHBN, 1st Inf. Div., originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. “It’s motivational. It made me feel like I need to work more.”

• Date Taken: 04.03.2018
• Date Posted: 04.04.2018 17:08
• Story ID: 271789
• Location: FORT RILEY, KS, US
• Hometown: SAN JUAN, PR
• Hometown: MESA, AZ, US
• Hometown: ST. LOUIS, MO, US