Photo By Master Sgt. Anthony Highland | Tech. Sgt. Joshua Smith, a physical medicine technician from the Human Performance...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas--The Human Performance Squadron on Joint Base San Antonio-Median Annex, Texas, has existed for just over three years, but the impact it’s had on getting trainees through technical school has been invaluable. The squadron falls under the Special Warfare Training Wing, which is responsible for training over 1,700 special warfare trainees per year.
“Before this squadron, the majority of students would wash out because of health issues,” says Tech. Sgt. Joshua Smith, a physical medicine technician at the Human Performance Squadron.
Physical injury and mental health issues have historically caused more than half of the students who made it to technical training to get eliminated from the course.
“We were losing 50 to 85 percent of our guys from each class,” says Smith. “The Air Force is unbelievably selective with who gets into these career fields, so when most of the people who qualify still don’t make it, leadership had to ask what the real problem was.”
Before the Human Performance Squadron, if a student was injured and couldn’t participate in training for any combined period longer than two weeks, the student would be forced into another career field or separate from the Air Force.
“I know all too well what that’s like,” says Tech. Sgt. Steven Coon, a diet technician from the Human Performance Squadron. “I was one of those guys seven years ago. I was going to be in pararescue. I got injured a couple months in, and I had to retrain.”
Today, injured students have access to world-class recovery facilities and are able to use them to get back into fighting shape.
Coon was able to find his way back to the Special Warfare Training Wing and now helps students avoid the situation he found himself in at the beginning of his Air Force career.
“We live in a time where bad information is everywhere. Some of these candidates think they know nutrition, but the knowledge they have is all wrong. I have to convince them that what I tell them is research backed,” Coon explains. “The Air Force spends a lot of money to train them; they wouldn’t let me steer them wrong.”
Physical fitness and properly fueling the body are important components of preparing students for technical training. Mental and emotional resilience have become equally necessary for the challenges faced by special warfare students.
“Now that the stigma on getting mental help is fading, trainees aren’t hesitating to reach out,” says Tech. Sgt. Steven Mellon, a mental health technician from the Human Performance Squadron. “We’ve learned to make it easy for them to make appointments and we integrate mental and emotional health with their coursework.”
Mellon says this is a unique assignment for a mental health technician because he gets to be tougher with trainees than with typical patients.
“We go out in the field with them. When we see them struggling to focus or cope with the stress, we get in there with them,” Mellon says. “They have to know they can get through this [and] that everyone is struggling to succeed, but that’s what makes it worth it.”
The training and education provided under the Human Performance Squadron is preparing students to become better Airmen in every sense of the word.
“Their time working with us helps trainees develop the skills they need to deal with the crazy expectations set for them,” says Smith.
The focus on holistic health reduced washouts by 80% in 2018, and those numbers are expected to be even better for 2019. The Human Performance Squadron hopes their work with special warfare candidates can be used to help Airmen become healthier and more resilient in the face of challenges faced by service members across the globe.
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.23.2021 19:55 |
| Story ID: | 405837 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Medics Help Condition Special Warfare Candidates, by MSgt Anthony Highland, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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