Wingman Day: Strengthening Airmen's Spiritual Pillar

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Xavier Navarro
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  The 319th Air Base Wing Warriors of the North took a timeout from daily tasks Nov. 13 in order to focus on the spiritual aspect of the four Comprehensive Airman Fitness Program pillars.

The Air Force initiative is to run the types of programs that helps build and sustain a thriving and resilient Air Force Community that fosters mental, physical, social and spiritual fitness which are the areas of a person's life and capture the totality of how they experience and relate to others and themselves.

Wingman Day started off with Team Grand Forks gathering for a briefing by the 319th Medical Support Squadron Mental Health on suicide prevention and from the 319th Air Base Wing Safety Office, on driving during the winter.

"Speed is the number one factor in all of these mishaps and being as a vehicle operator it's the one thing you have the most control of; you get to choose how fast you drive," said Andrew Swenson, 319th Air Base Wing ground safety manager. "You may not control what happened, but you do have control of what happens next."

Members attended three additional education sessions during the day. Each session had five different seminars to choose from, including The Core Values: "Through the Eyes of the Special Forces," led by Chaplain (Capt.) Christopher Watson.

During the seminar Chaplain Watson showed video clips of U.S. military Special Forces at work and explains how Airmen should implement the core values in their daily lives.

"I want the Air Force core values to become your values; integrity first isn't something you remind yourself to do, it's what you do naturally. Service before self, you don't have to train your mind to say wait and let me think of someone, it's what you do naturally. Excellence in all we do, it isn't something we strive for because you're already striving above it," said Watson. "The choice is yours! Here am I, send me. You took the oath and you raised your hand."

Wingman Day also offered several non-faith based seminars such as a class about how fast-paced video games affect the brain. A video during "Your Brain on Video Games," was shown and introduced cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier explaining surprising news about video games.

"I am a gamer myself, this seminar interested me because I didn't know whether or not it had positive or negative effects on humans," said Senior Airman Paul Ilagan, 319th Medical Operations Squadron medical technician. "One thing that was interesting to me is studies show that people who play video games are more attentive and pay attention to details. In our mission it's important to know there are ways to help include video games in people's health care."

Chaplain Watson summed up his thoughts on core values and on Wingman Day.

"Before everything else, your integrity has to be there, doesn't matter if you're willing to do service before self or achieve excellence. If you're going to jeopardize your integrity, you have lost it and missed your mark, you got to start there," said Watson.