Summer 2022 - 17

" This is not the Chaplain Corps bringing
spirituality, because spirituality already exists, "
Maj. Gen. Thomas Solhjem, US Army chief of
chaplains, said. " We are in a supporting role.
We are an enabler. "
And while there are plenty of ways to tangibly
quantify the other four domains in some
way, defining spiritual readiness can be more
difficult. Spartabase, in conjunction with the
military, is working to solve that problem.
" It's an important piece of the puzzle, and
probably the least understood, " Dan Duffield,
sports science consultant for Spartabase, said.
" I've spoken to a number of chaplains who all
agree with that statement. "
" Nobody is immune from trauma, none of
us are, " Solhjem said. " What research shows
us is that, in trauma, you are either growing
or not. Even the best of us, spiritually, we are
going to reach a peak if the stress is that severe
where we are going to need the agency of
other people. We often perceive it is a sign of
weakness to ask for help. It is not. Sometimes
our Soldiers and our families need somebody to
lock arms with and say, 'I'm going to help you.' "
The way Duffield likes to explain the Army's
H2F pillars is through the metaphor of an
airplane. There are five main components of an
airplane that are all necessary in order to ensure
the safe function of the flight - the engine, the
fuel, the cooling system, the electrical system,
and the window. The engine is the Physical
Domain, necessary for having the drive to get
through missions. The fuel is the Nutrition
Domain, needed if the engine of a soldier is to
run properly. The cooling system is the Sleep
Domain because if there's no recovery process
the engine will fail. The electrical system is the
Mental Domain because the brain controls the
functionality of the previous domains.
That leaves the window for the Spiritual
Domain - the way in which a soldier interprets
and perceives their surroundings.
" When Spiritual Readiness is high, the window
is clear and visbility is high. We can see our
surroundings and see where we're going. We
can see any obstacles in our way. What happens
when it gets a little blurry? When Spiritual
Readiness starts to decrease what happens is
the window gets blurry, but you can still see out
of it and push in the general direction you want
to go. Again, we're not performing as well as we
could in this domain, " Duffield said. " We want to
go to a place where we're meeting people with
the blurry window, but often what happens is
we get them when they're here - the window
is dark, cracked, and can't be seen out of. That's
when people are suffering from depression,
abusing substances, and worst-case issuicicde.
What we're trying to impact in the spiritual
domain is to keep them out of this window and,
ultimately out of the blurry window and have a
clear vision in front of them. "
The hardships soldiers face are extremely
perilous, and for a soldier to have truly enduring
resiliency, they need to build a strong spiritual
core. Soldiers work with their unit ministry team
to find extra guidance and create a personalized
spiritual development plan. A few suggestions
on how soldiers can work on building their
spiritual readiness are attending meetings with
people of similar values, participating in charity
work, journaling, meditating, and praying.
" The soldier's heart, the soldier's spirit, the
soldier's soul, are everything, " said Lt. Col. Paul
Fritts during an H2F Training and Doctrine
Command's Center for Initial Military Training.
" Unless the soldier's soul sustains him, he
cannot be relied on and will fail himself and his
commander and his country in the end. " n
tacticaltrainingandconditioning.com | 17
http://www.tacticaltrainingandconditioning.com
Summer 2022

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