Photo By Sgt. Mark Cloutier | A team from 575th Medical Company (Area Support), participate in 56th Multifunctional...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – In the first event of its kind for the 56th Multifunctional Medical Battalion, the Medicine Warrior Leader Challenge was launched Oct. 10-12, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
According to Lt. Col. Kimberlee Aiello, commander, 56th MMB, ten, four-person teams, representing the 56th MMB’s subordinate units, went head to head in the three-day competition designed to certify platoon leadership in soldiering and medical tasks while instilling unit cohesion and teamwork. Subordinate units of the 56th MMB chose their own teams.
Aiello conceived of the event after watching two of her own lieutenants compete in the Best Medic Competition.
“I thought it would be great to have something like this for team building on our battalion level, so I challenged these two lieutenants to design the program,” said Aiello.
“The Medicine Warrior Leader Challenge is a grueling three-day event where physical and mental stressors stimulate team unity,” said Aiello. “The challenge will help us to set competency standards for platoon level leadership in the battalion, and team performance will help determine potential battalion representatives for the Best Medic Competition held at Fort Sam Houston.”
Some of the event team challenges included two, three, five and seven-mile forced run/ruck marches, a night land navigation course, an obstacle course, and a confidence course. On one occasion, they even had a written test at 4 a.m. One of the cleaner events was 1a team board where members could collaborate on the answers to questions. There was an urban assault course, and both day and night medical lanes – sometimes under simulated enemy fire.
During the three-day event, the team members were kept in the dark – both literally and figuratively. According to Aiello, the teams had no idea which event they were doing next until they got there, and they never knew when they would be put on a bus to some unknown destination on JBLM – day or night.
“The element of surprise was imperative,” said 1st Lt. Molly Byrnes, support operations medical planner for the 56th, as well as one of the two lieutenants in charge of designing and coordinating the event. “The fact that they never knew what to expect or when to expect it was one of the psychological factors which increased the challenge for them on both the individual as well as the team level.”
“We set it up so that they would get only 4-5 hours of sleep each night,” said 1st Lt. Joseph Armstrong, executive officer for the 514th Ground Ambulance Company, also in charge of designing and coordinating the event. “We gave them each two Meals Ready to Eat [MRE] per day for sustenance, and on top of that, they knew they wouldn’t be getting much sleep so they would rest when they could and sleep at night when we finally told them they were done.”
On the first day teams started their in-processing at the company area at 4 a.m. At 6 a.m., they were all on a bus in “full battle rattle” – with no idea where they were going. They were dropped off at some remote spot on base for their first physical challenge.
They were to begin running/foot march in a particular direction down a very dark, dirt road. The teams were not told how far they were going – they were simply instructed to move out. And just when they thought they were done, there was another set of physical challenges to overcome.
The distinguished roar of 56th MMB’s Sgt. Maj. ThomasWrighton, could often be heard in the background of the events, shouting, “Way to go Medicine Warriors!”
“This definitely helped us to build team strength within our battalion,” said Wrighton. “Using this team concept anybody can be in charge - regardless of rank. As the individual members endure the physical challenges, they will become mentally and emotionally exhausted as well – when that happens natural leadership ability will cause any one of the other team members to step up to the leadership position for awhile.”
At the end of the three-day event, there could be only one winning team. The honor went to 1st Lt. Joshua Ecenrode and Team 8, from the 547th Medical Company (Area Support). Other members of the team were Pvt. Caleb Doctor, Sgt. Brandon Hughes and Sgt. Joshua Arnold. For those who didn’t win, they’ll have more opportunities as the intent for this event is to have it twice each year.
| Date Taken: | 10.12.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 10.23.2012 20:50 |
| Story ID: | 96654 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 138 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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