Supporting Troopers in transition

Photo By Staff Sgt. Christopher Vann | Navy Cmdr. Scott Johnston, officer in charge of the Joint Stress Mitigation and Restoration Team, speaks to service members who are out-processing at Trooper's Chapel, Sept. 2. JSMART provides individual and group support counseling to service members of Joint Task Force Guantanamo. JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detainees, including those convicted by military commission and those ordered released by a court. The JTF conducts intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination for the protection of detainees and personnel working in JTF Guantanamo facilities and in support of the War on Terror. JTF Guantanamo provides support to the Office of Military Commissions, to law enforcement and to war crimes investigations. The JTF conducts planning for and, on order, responds to Caribbean mass migration operations.  

09.04.2009

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Katherine Hofman 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

Joint Task Force Guantanamo's own Joint Stress Mitigation and Restoration Team facilitates transitional deployment support to the service members deployed to U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and during the service members' redeployment home.

Each month, JSMART supports service members by facilitating the required Deployment Cycle Support brief. DCS, a JTF comprehensive integration process, provides service members with valuable information to help ensure service members and their families are better prepared and sustained throughout the deployment cycle.

Service members leaving JTF Guantanamo don't always understand the impact and purpose of attending the redeployment briefing before their travel home, but facilitators like Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Joli Barden, a 14-year veteran and seasoned healthcare provider, find the class to be instrumental in the reintegration process. Barden, with three deployment tours to Guantanamo, facilitates the DCS briefing. "I take something new from the class every time," she said.

In addition to JSMART's participation discussing alcohol abuse, operational stress and family relationships, sections of the briefing are conducted by JTF DCS and the JTF chaplain on the critical topics of domestic abuse and suicide.

"[Service members] always get something [out of the brief]," said Barden. "A lot of information is vital and simple but often forgotten."

"[The briefing] was good. It supports our Navy general military training, but it gave more specific information," said Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Johnson, of JTF operational support, who noted that the statistics for domestic violence impacted him.

Facilitators of the DCS briefing agree that often service members are in such a rush to have their paperwork signed off and get home that they miss an integral part of their redeployment home, the reintegration process.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kyle Lafond, a six-year veteran on his second Guantanamo deployment, notes, "[service members] are so focused on going home that they forget about the adjustment time." Lafond continued by saying, "[service members] are reminded not to jump straight back into their life, because it has changed."

Facilitators recognize it is not possible for service members to go home and have everything be the same as it was before they deployed. Both Petty Officers, Barden and Lafond, commented on how "jumping back in" adds stress to the returning home process.

"The process needs to happen naturally," said Navy Cmdr. Scott Johnson, JSMART officer in charge. "If not, it could interfere with getting back to your life."

Above all, JSMART encourages service members to look out for themselves and fellow service members, get rest and take their time processing the experience of deployment.

Once back stateside from Guantanamo, family members of service members and civilians are highly encouraged to attend briefings, training, counseling in the DCS process and family programs.

• Date Taken: 09.04.2009
• Date Posted: 09.09.2009 16:36
• Story ID: 38515