POTFF to help Air Commandos, families: Chaplain's perspective

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Andrea Posey
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  Editor's Note: This is the fourth article in a series about Preservation of the Force and Family, a Special Operations Command initiative, and how it will help Air Commandos and their families at Hurlburt Field.

As a team, the chaplains of Hurlburt Field determine how they implement the spiritual portion of POTFF. They also partner with the airmen and family readiness center staff, mental health providers, and different agencies to provide better initiatives.

"POTFF is a great initiative that will make a difference for our personnel in the long term," said Chaplain (Maj.) Kleet Barcley, 1st Special Operations Wing. "We strongly believe in the chaplain corps that all humans are spiritually based and there is a spiritual component to us. Even if we are fine physically, if we are broken spiritually it will hamper us."

The chapel staff will support POTFF by working with other agencies on base through family resiliency events like weekends out, resiliency education and training, while tying in spiritual components.

One example was a training program called the "Ultimate Spiritual Relationships and Resilience" in September. The program revolved around presenting a program, similar to a seminar or a retreat environment, where the chaplains from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and the Army could talk about developing spirituality.

"The training empowered us as a chapel staff to be able to take that training and reproduce it many times over in the years to come," said Chaplain (Capt.) Chad Bellamy, 1st SOW. "It encouraged individuals to look inside themselves and identify resources and spirituality, and be able to draw upon their own belief system to develop resiliency in their lives."

The chapel is also looking into marriage programs, because chaplains believe a happy marriage is a key component to a successful career, as well as implementing the Resilience Family Institute, which develops the parent-child relationship, Barcley said.

The chapel plans to be involved with POTFF by encouraging people to be able to draw upon spirituality.

Spirituality is sharing a belief with someone even if their belief system is different, Bellamy said. This is important in challenging times when Air Commandos and their families face the absence of one another along with the added stress of being at the tip of the spear.

"I got here in July and was excited to learn what POTFF was and that the emphasis on preserving the force and families is huge," Barcley said. "It is really refreshing to be here and hear people saying we do need to take care of individuals, operators, those who support the operators, and the families."

The next article in this series will focus on the first POTFF resiliency video, which highlights Adm. Bill McRaven's, U.S. Special Operations Command commander, primary message for POTFF.