Email   Print   Share By Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, III Corps and Fort Hood Commander

Facebook Digg Delicious July 30, 2009 | Editorial

Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch

The period that the Army is going through now after eight years of fighting, six of those on two different fronts, is the most difficult that it has ever endured. However, as I say repeatedly, I am never afraid that the Army is going to break: our Soldiers are outstanding and they perform magnificently everything which their country asks of them.

I am worried, though, about individual Soldiers and Families breaking because of the immense amount of stress that multiple deployments and the training for those deployments have placed on them.

I am convinced that the Army spends too much time fixing Soldiers after they break when we should be spending time and energy and resources to prevent Soldiers from breaking.

In essence, to make them and their Families more resilient. That’s why we’ve dedicated an entire block along Battalion Avenue to our Resiliency Campus, which is the only one of its kind in the Army.

The Resiliency Campus is a place where individuals – Soldiers, Family members and our civilians are all welcome – can go to increase their fitness in three areas: mind, body and spirit. Though this is an initiative unique to the Great Place, the intent encapsulates the tenants of the Army’s Campaign Plan to strengthen Soldiers in five dimensions: physical, emotional, social, spiritual and Family.

The campus is made up of several distinct centers but each of its components is a part of the whole and thus embodies a holistic approach to increasing resiliency with a Spiritual Fitness Center, a Cognitive Enhancement and Assistance Center, a Wellness Center which includes a Functional Fitness Center, free cooking classes at the Culinary Arts Center and, eventually, a reflection pond, a parcourse and a Boundless playground.

The Spiritual Fitness Center may look like just another chapel, but it is not. Spiritual fitness is not necessarily connected to religion – though for an individual it could be. The center is an ideal sanctuary of individual discovery that empowers participants with the tools to pursue individual happiness and life fulfillment. Most importantly, it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week because the times that an individual needs a sanctuary don’t conform to business hours.

The Cognitive Enhancement and Assistance Center contains the central headquarters for Military Family Life Consultants, the Army Financial Assistance Center and the Army Center for Enhanced Performance.

The Wellness Center will house classes on healthy diets, tobacco cessation, stress control, health promotion and many other services. The one that I am most excited about is the Human Performance Labs, which should be functional by mid-September, where an individual can determine not only a resting metabolism but also maximum cardiovascular endurance to help in the design of a health and fitness program tailored to the specific needs of that individual. Once that process has been completed, individuals can head to the Functional Fitness Center to have programs tailored for their needs.

The Functional Fitness Center, which is part of the Wellness Center, will also contain a rock climbing wall, a CrossFit area, several classrooms for yoga, massage and aroma therapy and other classes, a juice bar, and a Wii room so Soldiers, Families and their children can play together.

As I tell my staff, I haven’t had an original good idea in 15 years – all of my good ideas come from other people. For example, the Spaghetti Night that we host on Thursdays started because a spouse mentioned to me that it would be a great way to bring Families together. The only limitation that we have on the Resiliency Campus is ideas. We have the passion and the space and we can find the resources and infrastructure but, if you have an idea that you think would be a good addition to the Resiliency Campus, please tell me and Col. Bill Rabena, our full-time Resiliency Campus commandant, so we can look into making it a reality.

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