Photo By Sgt. 1st Class John Miller | Members of 11th Airborne Division, Fairbanks, Alaska, accept the "Best in Class for...... read more read more
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FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division's Holistic Health and Fitness team accepted the "Best H2F Performance Team, Physical Readiness Domain" award at the 2026 Holistic Health and Fitness Symposium held May 13-14 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virginia.
The award recognized the brigade's "Wolf Recovery" program, a mandatory, data-driven human performance reset for all Soldiers returning from training exercises or deployments lasting two weeks or more. The initiative has reached approximately 8,000 Soldiers since its standardization in summer 2024.
"I am exceptionally proud of our brigade's H2F team," said Col. Chris E. Brawley, 1st Brigade commander. "They've proven that the most important aspect of building a strong H2F program is to build strong relationships with the chain of command. I speak to our brigade H2F Director, Dr. Ellie Van Luit, multiple times every day. She understands my intent and translates it into results. The Army is recognizing what we already know: We have the best H2F team in the Army."
The Wolf Recovery program challenges a longstanding Army tradition of solely prioritizing equipment and vehicle maintenance following high-tempo training events. The 90-minute session, required after any training period lasting two weeks or longer, incorporates all five domains of the H2F System.
Each session opens with a holistic Soldier survey, one that commanders themselves help design. That collaborative approach ensures the data collected is directly relevant to each commander's priorities and readiness concerns, making it far more likely that results drive action rather than gathering dust alongside the next report.
"We aren't just elevating concerns to commanders, we are the people who help them get after those concerns," said Dr. Van Luit, the brigade's H2F Program Director. "When commanders have a hand in shaping the questions we ask, they trust the answers. That trust turns data into decisions."
Soldiers rotate through physical recovery programming led by H2F Strength and Conditioning Coaches, mindfulness and mental skills stations facilitated by the H2F Cognitive Performance Specialist, and on-the-spot injury evaluations conducted by H2F physical therapists and athletic trainers. The session concludes with a "turf talk" integrating H2F subject matter experts, chaplains, Military Family Life Counselors, and installation prevention partners.
The program's impact on access to care has been immediate and measurable. During the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 26-02 recovery period alone, H2F personnel conducted 149 on-the-spot injury evaluations, bypassing the typical seven-to-10-day access-to-care delay and keeping Soldiers with their units.
"Where the priority was once solely on vehicles and gear, this initiative operationalizes 'human maintenance' as an equivalent, command-directed requirement," Van Luit said.
Within one week following each session, unit leaders receive anonymized survey results broken down to the platoon level, providing actionable data on readiness across H2F domains. Because commanders help shape those surveys from the start, the feedback loop closes quickly and meaningfully. Survey data revealing widespread hydration deficiencies, for example, prompted the H2F nutrition team to develop targeted education materials connecting adequate fluid intake to cold weather injury prevention, a particularly critical concern for Alaska-based Arctic Warriors.
To ensure scalability, the program relies on trained H2F extenders known within the brigade as Holistic Wolf Leaders, or HoWLers, who co-coach sessions alongside the core H2F team. The model embeds expertise at the lowest level and ensures the program can be sustained long-term.
All 81 H2F Performance Teams fielded across the active-duty Army were eligible to compete for the award. Nominations were evaluated by senior leaders from the H2F Directorate, Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Reserve Command on criteria including impact on readiness and lethality, impact on Soldier experience and morale, alignment with commanders' metrics, and innovation and sustainability.
The 2026 Holistic Health and Fitness Symposium was hosted at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, Hampton, Virginia, May 13-14.
| Date Taken: | 05.18.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2026 13:44 |
| Story ID: | 565569 |
| Location: | ALASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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