Photo By Senior Airman Kyle Cope | Couples from the 52nd Fighter Wing gather for a reunion and reintegration retreat at...... read more read more
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Couples from the 52nd Fighter Wing attended a weekend retreat February 21st – 24th, 2019 at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
The retreat was targeted toward couples whose spouse recently returned from a deployment or a short-tour assignment, while also providing valuable tools to couples who, while not recent participants in a short-tour or deployment, still wanted to work on their marriage.
These type of retreats are aimed to help foster and strengthen a healthy marriage.
“Resilient couples make resilient Airmen,” said U.S. Air Force Major Jason Mitchell, 52nd Medical Group Behavior Health Optimization Program element chief. “If our family is thriving, then I thrive better at work. It becomes a readiness issue, if my family is struggling, it is really hard for me to do my job when I have all those stressors at home.”
Amanda Clark-Andrejkovics, 52nd Medical Group Family Advocacy intervention specialist, provided an account of situations that prompted the creation of these marriage retreats.
“There was a couple who, six months after they arrived at Spangdahlem were like, ‘Who are you?’ ” said Clark-Andrejkovics. “We have been apart for 13 months. You get to your duty location and spend all your time focused on finding a place to live, getting settled, household goods, all those things you have to do, survival things, and you cannot reconnect. After they had settled, then were like, ‘I do not know who you are. What happened to you in the last year and half?’ ”
Clark-Andrejkovics further explained struggles couples face after a deployment or short-tour.
For many couples, it can be difficult figuring out parenting roles, where each person sits at the dinner table, who takes out the trash and other daily responsibilities, Clark-Andrejkovics said. During a deployment or short-tour, the service member is focused on themselves and their team, while the spouse at home is focused on the home and their families. For some, it is almost like they are single and then at the end of the deployment or short-tour, they have to reintegrate back into the marriage and relationship. For many couples at Spangdahlem, they were lacking both the time and tools to successfully accomplish this reintegration and an increase in early return of dependents and divorces occurred.
Mitchell suggested the retreats, while excellent for couples who recently have undergone a deployment or short-tour, are also great for all couples because the dynamic of a marriage changes over time.
“I have always said, if I am married for 55 years there will still be something I can learn about my spouse,” Mitchell said. “I can also learn to be a better communicator with my spouse because we have different demands at different times in our life.”
Clark-Andrejkovics explained that every family at Spangdahlem is eligible for these retreats and the importance of preventing marital issues before they begin.
“The retreat is specifically for those folks who need reunion or reintegration,” Clark-Andrejkovics said. “Assuming the world continues the way it has been, we are always going to have deployments. To me, if you are in the military at some point you are going to deploy. So preventative work is just as important as working to solve a problem after it had arisen. There is no harm in prevention, knowing that this could happen. So get some tools and information to help if we have to reintegrate. The target audience is every family at Spangdahlem.”
Some couples may not want to wait for a retreat to work on their marriage, Mitchell outlined several options available to these couples.
“You do not have to wait until a retreat to start working on your marriage,” Mitchell said. “The base offers resources that can help. Tomorrow you can go and see the chaplain with 100% confidentiality. Even if you are not spiritual, they have really great counseling services, they are all trained in evidence-based intervention services for marriage. Military Family Life Consultants on-base provide non-documented counseling services out of Airman and Family Readiness Center. Another option is always mental health or BHOP, embedded in family health and they can provide some initial intervention services for couples to work on communication or any other skills. There are a lot of services available now.”
In an effort to make the retreat easier for couples, childcare service is arranged for each retreat, with the next retreat scheduled for August 9-12, 2019.
For those interested in the next retreat call Jeanne Morrow, 52nd Fighter Wing community support coordinator, at 452-5314 or email her at jeanne.morrow@us.af.mil for more information.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2019 10:00 |
| Story ID: | 312916 |
| Location: | GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, DE |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Spangdahlem families retreat to advance reintegration, readiness, by SrA Kyle Cope, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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