Five pillars of fitness

Wounded veteran shares stories of resilience

DVIDS

“The fact is we have the right ingredients to sustain us in times of great difficulty,” said Roever, a Fort Worth, Texas, native.

While this may have worked for some veterans, there is not telling how many it helped any more than it answers how many it didn't help.

Whenever I hear about any program being pushed now, my first question is usually "How long have they been doing this?" Followed by "Has it worked." Judging by the fact the suicide numbers have gone up over the last couple of years, I don't hold out much hope on what the military is doing. It looks like this program has been up for about a year now but the results are a higher suicide rate across the military. It all depends on how much this program is being used but if it is wide spread, that is not a good result at all.


I have hopes that this may be close to where it needs to be because it does address the mind-body-spirit connection that has to be addressed. It does try to include families in on the healing. That's all good but the questions it asks trying to figure out if a soldier is in need of help are much like the kind of test you'd answer for a job. The open ended questions leave too much room to answer what they think the right answer should be instead of an honest one.

Much like the question "Have you thought of harming yourself or anyone else today does not factor in what the thoughts were yesterday or that they may come on later today, this leaves way too much room to play with the answers.

Here are a couple of links so that you can take a look at this yourself.

Herald Union - News
Five pillars of fitness


Oct 8, 2009 ... The Army has come out with the Comprehensive Fitness Campaign. ... It's about total wellness and fitness, building strength and resiliency in our Soldiers, families

Microsoft PowerPoint
Cornum CSF Overview Brief 23SEP09

Oct 26, 2009 ... COMPREHENSIVE SOLDIER FITNESS: STRONG MINDS, STRONG BODIES. \. BG Rhonda Cornum. UNCLASS/FOUO. DAMO-CSF

Can it work? Yes but it all depends on what they put into it. If they say they include the family in on healing then how do they do it? Do they tell the family what they need to know or do they gloss over it?

All of us need to take a good look at programs they are putting out and ask some hard questions because the answers involve life or death issues. So far, no program has been a real success since the numbers have kept on going up. The Montana National Guard's program, which I thouht was the best a few years ago, may still be the best one out there but I have not seen new data released from them lately.