315th Airlift Wing talks resiliency on Wingman Day Published Aug. 11, 2014 By Staff Sgt. Rashard Coaxum 315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Members of the 315th Airlift Wing joined together today to attend Wingman Day training events here. The Airmen participated in various activities with other unit members that helped focus on resiliency and unit health amongst Air Force members, with an overall theme of "Finding the Good." One of those activities was attending a Wing commanders call where 315 AW Commander, Col. Scott Sauter conversed with wingmen on the subject of "finding the good." "Resiliency applies to everybody here," he said. "When we consider finding the good, this is just one particular focus or theme." "It's very easy to get down on yourself for one particular overwhelming event in your life and as we begin to channel on that we can sometimes forget about all the other blessings and things that are going right," he said. Speaking in baseball analogy terms, Sauter said: "Against the backdrop of failure, it's very easy to get down on yourself for striking out at the plate, but let's consider the accomplishments." According to Air Force Reserve Command, the objective of Wingman Day is to reinforce the wingman concept and comprehensive Airman fitness as the foundation to building resilient Airmen. One of the goals for the day was to improve the resilience of group attendees through structured discussion of resilience skills, and the importance of being vigilant wingmen was constantly at the forefront of discussions. In small break-out groups, leaders guided discussions that varied from reinforcing the concept that everyone needs help from time to time, to identifying resources available to help build resilience. The discussions and activities also focused on team building. "Wingman Day is exciting because sometimes we get so caught up with our own work and training during a [unit training assembly] weekend that we don't always get the opportunity to build relationships with members outside of our immediate work area," said Master Sgt. Traci Johnson, a family readiness technician and Wingman Day participant. "Wingman Day allows us to establish connections and build rapport with other members of our unit." Lt. Gen. James Jackson - the chief of the Air Force Reserve - said in his welcoming video to "Wingman Day 2014" that "the wingman concept is the culture of Airmen taking care of each other and ourselves." Jackson said that part of that concept was being able to show resiliency. "A quality of a resilient wingman is the ability to experience a negative event and put it into perspective," he said. "The goal is to find the good and maintain a prospect of hope, even in the midst of difficulty." Sauter mentioned several helpful resources for wing members to access. They included the Airman & Family Readiness office, the Employee Assistance Program, the Chaplains offices as well as the Wingman Toolkit, which is available http://afrc.wingmantoolkit.org/ for computers or as a smartphone application. Sauter said that these resources are always available for Airmen anytime and that they should not be afraid to find help and use the resources if they need them. In his concluding remarks Sauter mentioned how crucial mentorship was to the resilient wingman frame of mind. "Consider your role as a mentor to be just as effective to promote this wingman culture," he said. "Look for the opportunities to see the value in somebody that you could mentor to bring that out to help them focus on the good, because there's something in everybody." Stay up to date with the 315th Airlift Wing at http://www.315aw.afrc.af.mil/ and follow the 315th on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.