Reintegration: Air Force care for caregivers Published Dec. 12, 2008 By Capt. Rose Richeson Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The Air Force Chaplain Corps is in the business of providing for others, but who ministers to the caregivers when they are in need of care? The Chaplain Corps Post-Deployment Reintegration Retreat to Lady of the Snows in Bellville, Illinois, exists for chaplains and chaplain assistants to provide a safe environment for sharing deployment experiences with other spiritual healers. "The first retreat went pretty good," said Chaplain (Col.) Jerry Pitts, Air Education and Training Command deputy chaplain. "We had invited some folks that had deployed and had heard about traumatic events but did not witness traumatic events." Chaplain Pitts said members of the first retreat, which took place in May, ended up loving grief recovery sessions because for them it was a tool they could take back and share with their Air Force communities. As a result of feedback from those who attended the May retreat, an Integrated Process Team conducted a review in September and redeveloped a curriculum titled "Taking Care of Yourself and Others." "The goal was to establish humor, lighten it up - allow time to process thoughts of where you've been, where you are now and where do you want to be," Chaplain Pitts said. Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Mark Campbell, a chaplain in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Military Community and Family Policy, attended the November retreat after spending May through September 2008 in Baghdad, Iraq, where he held services for Airmen assigned at Sather Air Base. "We did a number of patriot details at Sather...loading the fallen soldiers, and after a time you get a feeling that these were young, vibrant Americans who gave their life," Chaplain Campbell said. "The retreat gave us a chance to unload and share some of these feelings in small groups." Through small and large group sessions, the retreat coordinators noticed that a lot of the sorrows shared by chaplains and chaplain assistants were not focused on what they saw during the deployment, but more so the expectation of what it would be like when they came home, said Chaplain Pitts. Some came back to inspections or getting ready for inspections and some came back to assignment relocations. "A lot of care was put into making the setting feel very safe," Chaplain Campbell said. "It was not like you were going to be spotlighted to 'spill your guts.' There was a lot of respect for people's individuality and plans were made for folks to receive medical or psychological attention, if needed." The last day of the week-long retreat is dedicated to instruction. Classroom instruction is inserted here because by this point they've had a chance to think about processes and what has already been shared, Chaplain Pitts said. "One thing we learn is cohesion [during classroom instruction]...to work as a team," he continued. Traumatic event management is discussed to offer solutions for how to deal with unique emotional situations that may result from deployment. "Guided discussion and journal opportunities encouraged us to write down our thoughts during exercises," Chaplain Campbell said. "I still have the leather-bound journal they provided to me." The chaplain corps strives for all Air Force religious support teams to attend the retreat about 45 days after returning from deployment and have held three retreats since the program began with a fourth retreat scheduled for March 2009. "Our goal is within two to three years that every chaplain or chaplain assistant that has been to one of these tough locations will have the opportunity to attend this reintegration retreat so they can begin to understand what it means to process and what it means to share their story," said Chaplain Pitts. "We are convinced that it's in the creativity of sharing that the healing takes place." For more information about the chaplain corps retreat, logon to http://www.usafhc.af.mil/.