RAFs Molesworth and Alconbury host family fun while staying resilient

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  • By Staff Sgt. Ashley Hawkins
  • JIOCEUR Analytic Center Visual Information
RAF MOLESWORTH, United Kingdom --  According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 5.2 million adults have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the U.S., which is only a small portion of others who have gone through a trauma and aren't diagnosed.

To help service members better cope with the stressors in life and at work, the U.S. military has developed various programs throughout the years that teach personal resilience and wellness.

To continue relaying the importance of resiliency to military members, DoD contractors, civilians and dependents, members of the U.S. Africa Command hosted a spring fling, in conjunction with the 423rd Chaplain's Office Resiliency Day, at RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom May 29th and 30th, respectively.

The theme for the event was how to deal with the stress of military life and reach your full potential.

Among various activities, such as wall-climbing, bouncy castles and corn-hole games, personnel and their family members listened to psychologist Dr. Robert J. Wicks, who specializes in the prevention of secondary stress, and has dedicated his career to helping people become more resilient in life by publishing more than 50 books and traveling the world as a motivational speaker.

The former U.S. Marine Corps Capt.'s knowledge of the pressures military members have gone through is evident not only through his talk of motivation, but also of the experiences he has witness throughout his 35-year career.

"I was in Germany working with caregivers who'd just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan," said Wicks. "I was getting ready to give this talk on resilience and one of the full-bird colonels came to me and said, 'I just want to caution you before you speak.' I asked him, 'What's the caution?' The colonel told me, 'There are a lot of ghosts in this room.'

After Wicks asked what he meant, the colonel stated, "There's nothing left inside them."

Wicks went on to communicate the importance of bouncing back throughout life.

He expressed that resiliency range is flawed by DNA and nothing can be done about it.

The best chances for anyone to cope, is to maximize the resiliency range through motivation, knowledge and wisdom, which at the core of all three is a healthy perspective.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Anthony Godfrey, USAFRICOM imagery analyst, said Wickes' speech went right along with the event's theme.

"His speech drew a lot of personal experiences so it was definitely something to learn from," he said. "Resiliency is a big portion of who we are, so getting the units together with the families is also very important."
Although Wicks was the center of attraction for both resiliency days, his main focus was to help the Service members and their families who need it.

'It was an honor to be here because it's about working with people and helping them recognize that it's not the amount of darkness in the world, military or even their own lives that matters," said Wicks. "It's how they stand in that darkness."