Photo By Sgt. Nathanial Johnson | Sgt. Maj. Dustin Hall, III Armored Corps Chaplain's Sergeant Major, speaks to leaders...... read more read more
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Fort Cavazos, Texas — Senior leaders from Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Forces Command (FORSCOM) and Army Chief of Chaplains, were invited to a Spiritual Fitness Training Meeting held at the Phantom Forge Center Feb. 19, 2025, to encourage leaders to implement a new spiritual fitness training and guide which will be promoted this upcoming Spring.
All those in attendance were eagerly focused on Sgt. Maj. Dustin Hall, the III Armored Corps Command Chaplain Sergeant Major, as he passionately described the reasoning for providing a set definition, standard and guide for spiritual fitness for Soldiers stationed at Fort Cavazos and across the Army as a whole.
Hall described how a Soldier’s spiritual readiness can be developed through their leadership.
“Spiritual fitness is a leader’s responsibility. Every leader has a responsibility to know not only where their Soldiers are spiritually, but ensuring they develop a readiness for war,” Hall stated.
The chaplains from III Armored Corps worked alongside the Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) System, the Army’s primary investment in Soldier readiness and lethality, to establish a solution to developing and strengthening a Soldier’s spiritual readiness. Their solution was to develop a spiritual fitness assessment, guide and approach which helps identify where a soldier is in their spiritual readiness and provides them with resources and actions for them to take to strengthen their fitness.
“What we think the spiritual fitness guide brings to a Soldier’s day to day life is an ability to prepare for war and withstand life’s challenges,” Hall stated.
The training approach created, does not require a chaplain or a religious affairs specialist to be performed, but can be conducted by those in leadership at the unit level.
“We expect a squad leader and a team leader to spiritually assess their soldiers, and then it has actions for them based on that assessment,” Hall said. “This is how you make your squad stronger.”
Leaders not only discussed the importance of promoting spiritual fitness training, but also observed the training in action by the PFC’s Chaplain, Capt. Mike Lopez, and Religious Affairs Non-Commissioned Officer, Sgt. Ke’Andre Blockmon, while they conducted the training with Soldiers stationed at Fort Cavazos.
“Spiritual readiness, or spiritual fitness, is about finding your meaning in life and when you find your meaning in life, then that helps you fulfill who you truly want to be,” Lopez said.
The Soldiers receiving the spiritual fitness training, conducted a preliminary assessment and then were instructed on the four stages of spiritual fitness.
“Those four stages once understood, once trained, a leader can quickly get an idea of where a soldier is spiritually,” Hall stated.
Stage 1: External “To Me”
“When someone feels like things are simply happening to them, they feel powerless or a victim to everything that is going on in their life,” Blockmon said. “It is not until a person takes on responsibility for what‘s going on in their lives that they can move on to the next stage.”
Stage 2: Agency “By Me”
“The person is taking an active role in their life and they now see a whole new world of dreams, ambitions and goals,” Lopez stated.
Stage 3: Purposed “Through Me”
“The third stage is a revolutionary stage. It is whenever a person finds out they can help other people and make an impact on the lives around them and service is the key word,” Blockmon explained.
Stage 4: Empowerment “As Me”
“The last stage is a very selfless stage because you’re solely doing things for others that come after you,” Blockmon stated.
Lopez explained the significance of spiritual readiness training.
“It’s super important to train up that spiritual fitness that way you’re more ready when you go to combat so you’re able to survive and come home, that’s the goal. This will absolutely help Soldiers in combat because when you know why you’re fighting, or when you know what your purpose and meaning to life is, then you’re more than likely to survive,” Lopez stated.
Hall also stressed how essential teamwork is to the development of a Soldier's spiritual fitness.
“We don’t go through life alone. We don’t fight in the Army alone. In fact, our smallest element is a team,” he stated. “We see it as critically important to the success of not just spiritual fitness, but every domain, that there’s a community around you, supporting you.”
Hall emphasized the vital effort of Lopez and Blockmon in the implementation of the spiritual fitness training.
“When the story is told 10 years later, I’d love for it to include Chaplain Mike Lopez and Sgt. Ke’Andre Blockmon, because they have shouldered a lot of the load carrying this spiritual fitness guide and training validation forward. Without them, none of this could happen. Hopefully, we in the Chaplain Corps, will continue to recognize efforts like theirs to set the entire Army up for success,” Hall stated.
| Date Taken: | 02.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.27.2025 13:15 |
| Story ID: | 491494 |
| Location: | FORT CAVAZOS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Carrying the Load: III Armored Corps Chaplains Develop Spiritual Fitness Guide, by SPC Brandi Frizzell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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