The most important thing we do all year

September 2011

EL PASO, TX-Praevius Group held one of the firm’s most important events of the year-the APET III Workshop at the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy, or USASMA, Sept. 14 - 16.

“Our mission is to equip leaders with the tools and techniques they need to be better leaders. We want to make an enduring impact that will leave a legacy.” said Praevius Group’s Brandon Cates.

The focus of the three-day workshop was to equip Sergeants Major instructors with the tools they need to teach Army Profession of Ethics Training, or APET, courses and to ensure younger generations of soldiers get a proper foundation for Army ethics and professional development.

More than 96 people attended the event, but nearly the whole Army will be impacted by the training. Workshop participants were Sergeants Major Academy instructors who teach and train future Sergeants Major attending an 10-month training at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX. After attending the program and being taught by instructors, SGMs will then be sent out to lead and train soldiers around the world.

“The course was meant to challenge instructors of Sergeants Major to model techniques and the best practices for equipping their own students, incorporating character and ethical growth in all portions of education-giving their students more than just a one-time event,” Praevius Group’s Jamey Gadoury said.

Gadoury served as event organizer and small group facilitator. He said the curriculum was part of the ongoing Profession of Arms campaign.

“The course focused on professional identity, army culture, army ethic, character development and a capstone exercise that challenged participants on how they could impact their culture at the course so that their students have the most meaningful experience possible,” he said.

Praevius Group believes working progressively with this targeted audience will affect the entire profession.

“Sergeants Major are exponentially powerful and impactful,” Cates said. “They go out into the Army and the mentality spreads, multiplying overnight.”

Facilitators look forward to seeing the long-term outcome of the event.

“Hopefully Sergeants Major will be able to talk deeply on concepts of the Profession of Arms,” Gadoury said. “As commanders, they need to be able to effectively dialog with their command groups and with soldiers by interpreting information in every day terms as well as expanding and talking about deeper concepts.”

Praevius Group’s focus on leader development is in support of the U.S. Army’s Profession of Arms campaign. This movement was established in May 2008 as an effort to “assess, study, and refine the Profession of Arms” by “accelerating professional and character development in individuals, units, and Army culture through training, education and leader development,” according to the Center for the Army Profession and Ethic’s (CAPE) website. CAPE is an army-level asset that supports the Army as a whole and is located at West Point.

CAPE organizes a series of courses on education and development of leaders, encouraging participants at every level to discuss principals and theories, and develop their own character and the character of those around them.

Praevius Group provides CAPE with training and educational programs, and products for soldiers and leaders. Praevius Group team members served as speakers, course coordinators and small-group facilitators for this specific event, helping develop curriculum to identify particular to SGM needs.

“Due to our past experience in leadership and with the diverse experiences of our team members, CAPE trusts Praevius to support their mission … and aggressive campaign,” Gadoury said.

Praevius Group knows it will face some resistance from soldiers who think the Profession of Arms Campaign is “just a fad” or the “latest Chief’s initiative,” but hopes that working through the Sergeants Major will help reduce this resistance.

“Our vision is to give greater understanding of the Profession of Arms,” Cates said. “But there is a lot of cynicism we have to overcome. We have to try and breakdown barriers and get people to want to learn. Participants have an unbelievable depth of experience. At their core, they know and understand the concepts we deliver in these workshops. We challenge them to think about those concepts in a new way and renew their commitment to truly be a steward of the Profession.”

The course was taught and facilitated by a variety of professionals with different backgrounds and a broad range of expertise. Key speakers included: Mr. Gus Lee, COL (Ret.) Dr. Jo LeBoeuf, BG (Ret.) Becky Halstead, COL Eric Schacht, SGM Dave Stewart and Mr. Colby Jenkins.

Praevius Group’s Gadoury said the company brought in the highest quality speakers with contributable experiences. “We had nationally known speakers and authors which were an important part of it,” he said. “We customized concepts and theories of CAPE into a curriculum that was targeted for this specific audience.”

Gadoury said it’s important the curriculum is built around the audience’s needs. Facilitators and speakers used professionalism, combined military experiences and their expertise to successfully communicate with the SGM instructors.

Presentations and subject matter included: Professional Identity, The Profession of Arms Foundational Concepts, Army Culture, Civilian Military Relations, Army Ethic and Character Development, and the story of a “Journey of a Wounded Warrior.”

“Participants left this workshop with concrete techniques and plans to implement the concepts in their next cycle of Sergeants Major students,” Cates said. “The SGM instructors saw and … understood that they have a huge impact on the Army at large. Sergeants Major are the stewards of the profession-they ensure the younger generation of soldiers get a proper foundation in the Profession of Arms.”

The team delivered this message through various modes, including tangible strategies and classroom techniques. Activities included small-group discussions, large-group lectures and simulations.

Participants were responsive to the messages. Cates described the typical SGM learner as “extremely passionate” and displaying an “obvious care for the Profession of Arms.”

Catalyst for the event, SGM David Stewart from the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy, said the course did affect Sergeants Major Academy Instructors.

“I know for a fact having spoken to a few instructors that it definitely impacted their thought process on the whole character development piece,” Stewart said. ‘’The effects in the classroom were almost immediate as instructors were implementing the material Praevius gave us the day after the class.”

Stewart said the course was a transformational development of the Profession of Arms rather than a 3-day event.

“The course was spot on,” Stewart said. “The only way our soldiers are going to buy-in to the Profession is for our leaders to not only talk it, but walk it at the same time.” This course prepared leaders for just that.

The APET III Workshop at USASMA is just a piece of what Praevius Group does. The firm supports the Army in other ways, too.
Cates said, “We all have a special dedication to soldiers and … believe our work will truly have a lasting impact on the organization we all love.”

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Praevius on Suicide Prevention

September 2010

Fort Hood takes aim at stigma as it battles record suicide pace

Officials hope role-playing sends message to soldiers: It’s OK to get help.

By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:36 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3, 2010

Inside a darkened theater, camouflage-wearing soldiers shuffle toward their seats to confront an enemy that has taken record numbers of their comrades in the past year.

On the stage, four actors re-enact a situation in which a soldier who recently returned from war describes the pain and hopelessness he feels but doesn’t know how to handle. Jamey Gadoury , an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, interrupts the action and talks directly to the troops, many of whom are about to deploy to Iraq next month.

“We talk a lot as an Army about warrior culture,” he says. “As an Army we know what courage on the battlefield looks like. The question is, when it comes to a life-and-death situation with a buddy, can I dig deep to that same sense of courage?”

This sprawling Army post, the nation’s largest, is set to pass an unwelcome milestone. Through July, officials say there have been 14 confirmed or suspected suicides of Fort Hood soldiers, eclipsing last year’s total by three and matching the total in 2008, which saw the most suicides of Fort Hood soldiers since the wars began. The spike at Fort Hood comes as the suicide rate for the whole Army doubled between 2005 and 2009, leaving military leaders searching for answers and scrambling to implement suicide prevention measures.

“The Army realized too late that there was a very serious problem,” Gen. Peter Chiarelli , the vice chief of staff for the Army, wrote in a report last month that provided a stark assessment of the Army’s suicide prevention efforts.

Fort Hood officials, who have watched suicides spike in 2010 as the post’s population swelled with thousands of troops returning from Iraq, have been similarly blunt.

“Despite our best efforts, we are not succeeding,” Maj. Gen. William Grimsley , the acting Fort Hood commander, wrote last month in the Fort Hood newspaper. “Too many of our Soldiers are seeking a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

At Fort Hood, prevention efforts have largely taken aim at the barrier experts say has kept too many soldiers from getting the help they need: the lingering stigma within the military that seeking mental health help is a sign of weakness and poison for career advancement. An August report by a Department of Defense task force on suicide prevention found “discriminatory and humiliating treatment” of some service members who sought help throughout the armed services.

“That stigma, it certainly is very real in the military culture,” said Ed Colley , a retired Air Force captain and the father of a Fort Hood soldier who killed himself in 2006. “I don’t know how to totally get rid of it. They are trying to give soldiers the message that toughness can be displayed by getting help. That’s a good message, but it’s a tough sell for a (service member).”

Stephen Colley , a 22-year-old Fort Hood helicopter mechanic, killed himself in May 2007 after returning from Iraq, before the Army began its current campaign to reduce stigma and encourage soldiers to seek help.

He returned from war physically unharmed, but carrying unseen wounds. Ed Colley said that at first, Stephen seemed to be handling things well, but he soon became moody and withdrawn. He had financial problems, and his marriage was suffering. In mid-May he was given a standard behavioral health screening and for the first time indicated that he was thinking about suicide. But instead of being sent to the emergency room, he was given an appointment for a sleep study, Ed Colley said. The next day, under the influence of Percocet prescribed after a dental procedure, Stephen Colley hanged himself in the backyard of his Fort Hood home.

While he is frustrated at the Army’s missed chances to help his son, Ed Colley said his son also worried that seeking help would jeopardize his Army career.

“He didn’t self-identify early on,” Colley said. “Like most soldiers, he said, ‘I’m tough enough.’

“It’s a macho culture. The military is in an impossible situation,” he added. “Soldiers have to be trained, indoctrinated if you will, into a tough mindset: I’m tougher than the enemy, tougher than anyone else. That of course sends a corollary message: You should be mentally tough. You shouldn’t have issues.”

Fort Hood has unrolled a series of programs aimed at suicide prevention in recent years, including intensive training in what officials call suicide first aid. Graduates of the training program, including more than 650 last year, are given distinctive green stickers to put in their workplaces that let soldiers know they can approach them for help. Soldiers also carry laminated cards with tips on how to help a buddy in need of help and have access to substance abuse counseling.

And last year, Fort Hood launched what it calls a resiliency campus, where soldiers and family members can receive everything from yoga classes and relationship counseling to financial advice in hopes of easing anxiety and stress. Post officials say about 3,500 soldiers use the campus per week.

Col. Thomas Yarber, chief of the Resilience and Restoration Center at Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, said it’s helpful when officers are simply seen in the waiting room of a behavioral health clinic. “On occasion if I work with a senior (noncommissioned officer) or officer, I reinforce that they are a great role model for other soldiers,” Yarber said.

Officials say such an array of programs is necessary because they don’t see any clear-cut trends in the soldiers who have killed themselves. Of the 14 Fort Hood suicides this year, three soldiers had never deployed, seven had deployed once and four had been on multiple deployments.

Fort Hood officials conduct a review after every suicide, and Yarber said factors often include deployments, relationship issues and financial problems. “It’s the big picture,” he said. “Frequent deployments may be a factor, but it’s not just that; you have to look at the whole picture.”

The role-playing exercise, unique to Fort Hood and held three times a week at the post’s Palmer Theater, is one way that Fort Hood officials are trying to change that mindset among troops. As the four actors role-play uncomfortable, painful situations, they ask the soldiers in the audience to think about how they would talk to a friend who might be suicidal. Soldiers are brought onstage to take part in the scenarios. Gadoury, who serves as a kind of facilitator during the show, repeats his mantra that seeking help for suicidal thoughts is not a sign of weakness.

“Being honest and getting help is a sign of strength and good judgment,” he tells the roughly 150 soldiers. Occasionally during the performances, soldiers who are struggling with their own issues walk out of the theater and seek help from the behavioral health therapist who is on hand for every show.

“We have to start a dialogue on talking about a hard issue like this,” said Timothy Block , who coordinates Fort Hood’s employee assistance program and works with the post’s suicide prevention programs. “These are really touchy subjects. We want folks trained up to be not too intrusive, but not lackadaisical.”

The scenes have been shown to nearly 30,000 soldiers since they began last year.

“There was a lot of information I could use in the future to approach someone,” said Pfc. Courtney Elie , a 23-year-old Killeen native who is deploying for the first time to Iraq next month. Elie said he feels his chain of command would support him if he ever sought out mental health help. “They would think I was soldier enough to ask for help,” he said.

Sgt. Michael Smart , 38, said suicide prevention measures have expanded dramatically in recent years.

“It’s spoken about a lot more openly than when I first came in,” Smart said. “Everyone needs to talk sooner or later. With multiple deployments, everyone needs to vent somewhere no matter who you are.”

Fort Hood officials say that while top commanders are learning that they need to let go of outdated attitudes about mental health, the challenge has been reaching more junior officers.

“I think senior leaders totally get it,” said Col. Bill Rabena , commandant of Fort Hood’s resiliency campus. “We’re working our way down.”

Chuck Luther , an Iraq veteran who founded the soldier advocacy group Disposable Warriors, said he’s seen a sea change at Fort Hood in terms of how seriously commanders are taking the mental health problem.

“I had been beating my head for 2½ years at Fort Hood to get these guys some help,” he said. “When guys are taking their lives at a record pace, you’ve got to step back and let the macho attitude go.”

jschwartz@statesman.com; 912-2942

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Tall Shoes to Fill

February 2009

sunday_general_mainBy David Maurer

No institution more masterfully orchestrates the traumatic transformation from civilian to soldier than the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Since 1802 some of the nation’s finest Army officers have been honed within the gray, granite fortress overlooking the Hudson River in New York. In 1976 women were given the opportunity to join “the Long Gray Line.”

A year later Rebecca Halstead was one of 104 females and more than 1,000 males, who arrived at the academy to meet the challenge.

The day started with high hopes and parental hugs and ended, for some, with quiet rides back home.

Halstead did much more than make it through the four arduous years of demanding physical and mental training. On Aug. 1, 2004, she became the first female West Point graduate to earn the rank of brigadier general.

But on that long-ago July day, when flustered cadets could hardly remember their names, much less their right foot from their left, Halstead simply was focused on survival.

“If you have long hair it’s short hair, if you have short hair it’s shorter hair,” said Halstead, who retired from the Army last September and now makes her home in Fluvanna County. “They take your civilian clothes and get you into a military uniform.

“They teach you how to salute, how to do left-face, right-face and about-face. They teach you how to march, because there’s a parade at the end of the first day.

“And all this time you’re being yelled at. At the end of that first day, kids walk right off the parade field. They see their parents in the stands, and they’re gone.”

Many cadets prepare for years to receive one of the coveted appointments to the academy. The athletic Halstead was planning to go to Ithaca College to prepare for a career as a coach and gym teacher.

“West Point wasn’t even on my radar screen,” said Halstead, who grew up in the small town of Willseyville, N.Y. “But in the spring of 1976 my mother was reading the newspaper and said, ‘Look at this. They’re letting women go to the academy.’

“She started reading all the qualifications and said, ‘This sounds just like you.’ If you think about it, that’s pretty amazing, because in the

1970s for a mom to want her daughter to go to a prominent male institution is incredible.

“But my mom is known for her encouragement and for her ability to see the best in you and push you toward that in a positive way.”

To please her mother the future one-star general said she’d apply. Inwardly she didn’t think she had a prayer of being accepted into the extremely selective academy.

“When I got the acceptance letter I couldn’t believe it,” Halstead said with a laugh. “I immediately panicked, but I also felt I had made a deal I couldn’t go back on.

“What’s going through my mind that first day at the academy was that I was crazy. All my friends were home enjoying their summer, and there I was being yelled at by some of the country’s finest.

“I wanted to quit so many times, but I always tell folks there are two rules to life. Rule number one is: Don’t quit, and rule number two is: Refer back to rule number one.”

Halstead came to understand that the harsh, mind-numbing introduction to military life has a purpose. It’s designed, in part, to eliminate those who either aren’t seriously committed to the challenge or realize they’re not suited for the lifestyle.

“It has to be a tough environment,” Halstead said. “And it has to be a disciplined environment, because we are creating and developing leaders who are going to lead men and women, sons and daughters, into combat.

“That takes special people. Not everybody is going to like it, and not everybody is going to pass the test.

“If you’re not serious about it, they want you to leave. I don’t disagree with that.”

Halstead said most people would agree that the women in the class before hers had the hardest transition. This was not because they were treated any worse, but because they were constantly in the eyes of the media.

And there were a lot of people back then who didn’t believe women belonged at West Point. One male cadet was quoted as saying the admittance of women to the academy was the “most traumatic thing that’s happened since they took away the horses.”

But women like Halstead not only proved they belonged at the academy, they proved they could make tremendous contributions to the military. In time all the initial problems with things like uniforms were worked out.

“As far as women at West Point go, most changes I see now are physical,” Halstead said. “They can wear their hair long; we couldn’t. They can wear earrings; we couldn’t. They’re allowed not to lose their identity as women, whereas we were still in the lets-try-to-make-everybody-look-alike era.

“I think the overall camaraderie with men and women is probably much stronger now. They have grown up in an integrated society that is increasingly recognizing the fact that diversity is our nation’s strength, not a weak link.”

Halstead said making it through the academy is hard for everybody, not just women. The 40-percent attrition rate for both genders proves this out. Of the 104 women who started in her class, 63 graduated.

Halstead wasn’t the first person from her hometown to go to West Point, but she was the first to graduate.

“Anytime I think of proudest moments, I think of my parents both smiling and being so happy on graduation day,” Halstead said. “The day I was promoted to brigadier general was probably my second-biggest day.

“The ceremony was in Germany, where I was stationed. A whole bunch of my friends from grade school, high school and West Point came to be part of it.

“My entire family — Mom and Dad, brother, two sisters and nephew — were there as well. Having both my parents there and seeing them really beam meant more to me than anything.”

Halstead’s focus during her 27 years in the Army was in logistics and ordnance. She has shouldered incredible responsibilities, from helping to maintain nuclear weapons to ensuring the men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan had everything they needed to accomplish their missions.

Standing 5-feet, 1½-inches tall, Halstead proved time and again that size doesn’t make the soldier. Retired Maj. Gen. Dewitt T. Irby Jr. met Halstead early in her career when she was a captain.

Halstead said Irby started as her leader, became her mentor and then one of her dearest friends. He was in Germany to pin the bright stars on her uniform.

“Very candidly, I consider Becky one of the finest leaders who ever worked with or for me in all my 33 years in the Army,” Irby said during a recent telephone interview from his home near Santa Cruz, Calif. “I think the cornerstone of her leadership skills are probably two words — integrity and caring.

“In the more than 20 years I have known her, I have seen her deal with some very difficult situations in some very difficult and trying times. I can’t recall ever hearing her complain about anything.

“When things got tough, she just got a little bit tougher. When things didn’t go her way, she looked at it as an opportunity and maybe even a challenge, but she didn’t shirk from it.”

Irby said when he gave Halstead command of a problematic company, she had it “humming like a sewing machine” within weeks. She then asked him for command of an even bigger and more challenging company.

“I had an ammunition company, 300 soldiers strong, that was a problem for me,” Irby said. “They were ammo humpers with big shoulders.

“When I told Becky’s battalion commander I was thinking of giving her the company he said, ‘Oh my God sir, that’s stupid. That’s just not right. She’s a little bitty girl, and they’ll run over her.’ I said he might be right, but let’s give it a try. I called her in and told her I was going to give her command of that company in about a month.”

A few days later, Irby was heading home after a long day at the office and noticed a lone soldier exercising in the middle of the parade field. Curious, he walked out to see who it was.

“It was Becky,” Irby said with a tone of admiration in his voice. “I asked her what she was doing, and she said getting in good condition.

“She told me her plan for the day she took command of the ammo company was to take her soldiers on a PT [physical training] test and whip all their butts. And then she was going to take them on a four-mile run and lead it all the way.

“That’s exactly what she did. From that moment on, they had great respect for her, and I didn’t have any more trouble with them.”

Halstead was a brigade commander with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., when terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Just weeks later, she found herself flying into Uzbekistan to help determine what logistics would be needed during the war in Afghanistan.

“I flew into Uzbekistan with a Special Forces team in a C-17,” Halstead said. “My first impression of them was that they had no discipline, because their hair was long.

“But that’s because part of their mission is to fit in. They’re a different part of our Army, and so they have a different culture, and I hadn’t been around that before.

“But you quickly recognize that they’re doing far more important things than worrying about haircuts. I found them to be very professional and wonderful to work with.

“They’re incredibly hard and mean, yet incredibly tender and loving. All my friends who have had anything to do with any of their groups have been amazed.”

Halstead also has been extremely impressed by the men and women she has commanded throughout her military career. During her tour in Iraq from 2005-2006 she commanded 20,000 soldiers, 5,000 civilians and was responsible for 55 locations.

Halstead’s job was supplying logistical support for all the coalition forces in Iraq. To accomplish this she had to work nearly around the clock, seven days a week.

“During my year in Iraq, I experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows,” Halstead said. “When your soldiers get killed on missions, that’s the lowest low. The highest high is when you know you’re part of accomplishing tremendous missions on a daily basis.

“For example, every day we moved by ground anywhere from 1.5 million to 2 million gallons of fuel. I always said without the maneuver units, we didn’t have a job.

“But without us they can’t do their job. So it takes a real team effort to get the job done.”

The general said by far the most difficult job she had was writing letters of condolence to families of soldiers in her command who were killed. They always were personal letters, handwritten on her general-officer stationery.

“I typically chose Sunday afternoons to write the letters,” Halstead said. “I would sit in my office, calm my thoughts and really focus on the family that was going to get that letter.

“Usually by the time I wrote the letter I had attended the memorial service for the soldier. When you walk away from a memorial service, you feel as if you had known that person your whole life.

“You also walk away knowing how many lives are fractured because of it.”

Halstead now works for Praevious Group, which does work for the military in areas such as leadership development. She also is working on a book she has been asked to write about how faith, family and freedom have shaped her life.

The retired general also is adjusting to life as a civilian. It’s a transition that can be nearly as traumatic as learning how to be a soldier.

“I really loved being a soldier,” Halstead said. “I very much loved the patriotism of service to nation, I loved the people and I loved wearing the uniform.

“The hardest part now is not wearing the uniform and not being identified with being a soldier. The upside to that is I love going through the airports now and every time I see somebody in uniform I get to say, ‘Hey, thanks for your service.’

“But the Army was just the right environment for me. I was very blessed that I found my niche early.”

Source: DailyProgresss.com (http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/lifestyles/columnists/article/tall_shoes_to_fill/35791/)

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Welcome Jamey Gadoury

January 2009

Praevius is honored to welcome Jamey Gadoury to the team. Jamey joins us after serving as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army. He will serve as Praevius Group’s Operations Officer. Jamey is a 1999 graduate of The United States Military Academy.

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Welcome Mike Allred

January 2009

Praevius is honored to welcome Mike Allred to the team. Mike comes to us after serving our country as a U.S. Marine. Mike is set to deploy in support of the Rapid Equipping Force (REF) facilitating technology insertion and integration in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Welcome Scott Cheek

December 2008

Praevius is honored to have Scott Cheek join our team. Scott has assumed the role of Technology Development Lead and is already getting after it with many of our projects. Scott recently graduated from University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

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