Wingman Day; taking care of Guardsmen and their families

by Senior Master Sgt. Jerry R. Bynum
Air National Guard Public Affairs

4/26/2013 - JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. -- Guardsmen assigned here participated in an Air Force and Air National Guard event known as Wingman Day to discuss important issues impacting Airmen and their families Thursday here.

"It's our time to focus on our organization and our people, to 'stop and check under the hood' on how we're doing both individually as well as collectively," said Col. Doug Slocum, the director of safety for the Air National Guard.

Wingman Day is a time set aside to focus on caring for service members and their families. It was institutionalized by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in early 2012 as a recurring opportunity for commanders to address their people and for face-to-face, peer-to-peer discussions on critical issues such as resiliency, stress, suicide prevention, sexual assault, substance abuse, safety and much more.

"The Air National Guard family doesn't just include the members serving in uniform," Slocum said, "it includes our families, retired Guardsmen and veterans, our friends and our communities. By equipping our Guardsmen and their families to be more resilient, we are enabling a stronger, more capable and more efficient community-based force."

Recognizing the importance of Wingman Day, the ANG has developed a supporting resource center through a Web site and a cell phone application for use with iPhone and Android to empower commanders and Airmen. This provides a "plug-and-play," off-the-shelf ready resource that gives commanders the ability and agility to focus their attentions on the leadership aspects of taking care of Guardsmen and their families. The Web site has proven to be successful and has been well received. The Air Force is looking into adopting the ANG resource.

"Our goal is to identify key issues facing our Guardsmen today and provide an arsenal of resources they can use to help themselves, and to help others, be more resilient, healthy and safe," said Slocum. "One of the fundamental pillars of Wingman Day is that everyone needs to know the proactive roles, resources and responsibilities of a being a wingman."

Wingman Day for the Air National Guard Readiness Center addressed a wide variety of issues in a large general session meeting. Following the general session, attendees broke off into smaller groups providing an opportunity for open discussions on resiliency issues with a focus on the "ACE" concept. Ask, care and escort is a three pillar system ensuring Guardsmen and their family's needs are addressed. The small group format was designed to engage individuals to brainstorm solutions and discuss available resources. This approach gets away from an impersonal online computer-based training and gets people talking to one another.

"The best resource we have is each other, our wingmen," said Slocum. "We all need to realize shortcomings and failures are necessary steps on the road to success. Being a winner is not defined by 'winning,' being a winner is defined by your character and how you handle the inevitable adversity along the way."

For more information about Wingman Day and the resources available visit www.wingmanday.org or use your cell phone and text "ACE" to 24587 to receive the cell phone application.