Photo By Josephine Carlson | Staff Sgt. Joann Cassitty, 2nd Battalion 60th Infantry Regiment, takes aim during...... read more read more
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Soldiers from across Fort Jackson came together at Aachen Range March 5 to participate in skeet shooting as the first event of many scheduled through Warrior Adventure Quest.
WAQ is an Army reset training tool designed to introduce Soldiers to activities that serve as alternatives to dangerous behaviors often associated with accidents involving recently re-deployed Soldiers. This tool presents coping outlets to help Soldiers realize their own “new level of normal” after deployment.
Though this is a first for Fort Jackson, some Soldiers have participated in them at other installations. Staff Sgt. Kyle Braley from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 165th Infantry Brigade, is one of them.
“I did WAQ back at Fort Carson when it first came out,” Braley said. “We did paintball when we came back from deployment … this is my first time doing skeet shooting, I learned a lot.”
Until recently this program had not been available at Fort Jackson.
Kristin Wilcox, Outdoor Recreation Manager at Marion Street Station, said that typically at other installations Soldiers are eligible to participate in WAQ within 90 days after a deployment but here at Fort Jackson the events are intended for cycle breaks.
Outdoor recreation will send event options to units and the Soldiers can choose the events they want to attend.
WAQ offers more than just the opportunity to participate in outdoor events. The program combines existing Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation’s Outdoor Recreation high adventure activities (e.g. rock climbing, mountain biking, paintball, scuba, ropes courses, skiing, zip lines, white water rafting, and others) with a leader-led after action debriefing tool developed by Army Medical Department Center and school.
The WAQ program has been developed into five phases. Phase One, Leader Training, is for all staff sergeant and above participants and teaches them how to facilitate an L-LAAD in response to a significant event in an operational environment.
Phase Two teaches these unit leaders how to utilize the same L-LAAD technique when facilitation surrounds an outdoor adventure activity.
Phase Three, Soldier Training, presents service members concepts like Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, Combat Operational Stress Control and Post Traumatic Growth, coping skills, and how it all relates to the WAQ program.
Phase Four, is the outdoor adventure activity where team building is combined with challenging activity skills.
Phase Five, is the actual facilitation of the L-LAAD by the unit leaders with their unit members to realize connections between the activity they have just experienced and the challenges they may be experiencing in their daily lives.
“We’re trying to introduce them to fun, high adrenaline activities that are safe,” Wilcox said.
| Date Taken: | 03.11.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2021 08:59 |
| Story ID: | 391475 |
| Location: | SOUTH DAKOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 124 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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