Highlights
of the
OCTOBER 2008 issue:
OUTDOOR RECREATION
- Best-Kept Secret in
Southern Maryland
Navy Recreation Center (NRC) Solomons Island, Md., has earned its reputation as the “best-kept secret in Southern Maryland,” providing a destination spot — a wonderful vacation retreat or getaway — for servicemembers and their families. Nestled on a peninsula between the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay, to the south and east of Point Patience, the 295-acre Naval Base complex has about 4,800 feet of shoreline and serves as host to the Navy Recreation Center, Navy Family Housing and two industrial tenants. The Solomons Complex, operated by Naval District Washington, is located 65 miles southeast of Washington D.C., and is located 55 miles south of Annapolis in Calvert County, Md.
NRC Solomons features all of the amenities needed for a great day or weekend away from it all, including picnic pavilions, a recreation center, marina, fishing pier, swimming pools, beach, miniature golf, driving range, basketball and tennis courts, walking trails and other recreation activities. For those looking for an ideal camping locale, Solomons boasts 15 group sites, including 56 primitive campgrounds within a short walking distance of full-service comfort stations. Campers and RV owners can utilize one of six electric-only sites, or 146 complete hookup sites. The military recreation center also offers the latest in outdoor living, including yurts from Pacific Yurts. The yurts are 24 feet in diameter and sleep approximately six people. They're furnished without electricity, water or kitchen facilities. Active-duty, reserve and retired military personnel and Department of Defense employees are eligible to reserve any type of lodging, besides campgrounds, throughout the year.
AFRS INCOMING PRESIDENT JENNIFER FOSTER
- Boldly Leading AFRS at Critical Time in History
 As the Community Activities Manager at NS Everett, Wash., AFRS Incoming President Jennifer Foster is part of “the best team of recreational professionals in the Navy!”; She points out that the mission in Navy Region Northwest is “to support the fleet, fighter and family and help keep our naval forces ready and able to execute our nation’s defense requirements.”
GRF: As you take the reins as AFRS president, please provide your view of AFRS, and how you envision the organization moving forward?
FOSTER: AFRS offers a unique forum for military recreation professionals. The opportunities offered by membership and active participation in AFRS provide our members a chance to enhance their personal as well as professional skills and knowledge. Every servicemember in the military, and their family members as well, experiences daily stress and pressure of serving our country. The AFRS continues to strive toward being a leading force in helping each member promote and expand the quality recreational opportunities in our military recreation services and programs.
GRF: What is the current state of Navy MWR programs (particularly recreation), and what is the forecast looking forward? How can AFRS help the Navy to continue to improve, grow and sustain programs?
FOSTER: Navy MWR recreation programs continue to lead the way in innovation, applicability to the needs of today’s sailor and development of recreation professionals that can adapt and grow in ever changing military recreation service-delivery situations. Navy MWR has recreation professionals on the front lines of the Global War on Terror. These civilian warriors support forward deployed ships and ground forces throughout the world. AFRS contributes to the continued improvement of armed forces recreation, by providing its members a common forum that promotes communication, professional development and recognition of the many contributions that are made every day by Navy MWR professionals.
Sports help to boost morale and provide a brief respite or moment of normalcy from the tough missions and tasks sailors face every day. |
GRF: What are your goals for AFRS over the next year? Please explain what they are and what you will do to ensure that they are met.
FOSTER: My goals for AFRS include continuing to leverage the recent NRPA Policy Statement on Support for Service Members and their families in the United States Armed Forces, which validates the need for cooperation between military and non-military recreation entities. AFRS can be the leader in ensuring that all members of the Armed Forces and their families have access to quality recreational experiences — whether they are returning from a combat area with an injury or life-changing wound, or not. As leaders in military recreation, AFRS members can be advocates for continually improving the lives of our armed forces. As board president, I will be striving to ensure that our members have the opportunities to improve their professional skills and make a difference in their daily efforts to deliver world class service at their military installations around the world.
AFRS OUTGOING PRESIDENT CHRIS MEHRER
- A Focus on Wounded Warrior, Family Support
GRF Magazine caught up with Armed Forces Recreation Society (AFRS) Outgoing President Chris Mehrer, Navy MWR Program manager, Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC).
GRF: As you take the reigns as AFRS president, please provide your view of AFRS, and how you envision the organization moving forward?
MEHRER: Overall, I'm very pleased with AFRS progress in support of our wounded warriors and veterans. During the past year, a Wounded Warrior Task Force has been established among the membership and has worked closely with National Therapeutic Recreation Society (NTRS). The greatest achievement from AFRS has been the finalization of a Wounded Warrior Resolution adopted by the membership and NRPA. Other notable actions include our members taking advantage of a program offered by the Pennsylvania State University that focused on wounded warriors and most of all, the terrific program initiatives that all of the service branches have been involved in. I anticipate hearing about them during our annual meeting this year.
On support networks, I can't think of a better one than the sharing of expertise among like professionals, and am pleased to see how AFRS membership has blossomed. In June 2006, AFRS recorded 476 members. In June 2008, we now have 967 members! Additionally, The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has taken the lead in hosting quarterly meetings with members of the service branch Morale, Welfare & Recreation (MWR) leadership to help us interact. The dialog to date has provided a greater familiarity with what each of us are doing. We are now moving toward reviewing processes we do individually with a view toward singling them up. Contracting of materials is a classic opportunity. On recruiting new talent into our ranks, I cannot point to a joint AFRS success. I take responsibility for not being able to generate a greater level of interest from the association perspective. But I know this topic is not going to fade away. In the Navy, for example, we recently organized a contract with the Indiana University to provide us with qualified professionals on one of our new fitness initiatives for ages 40 and over called Shape. I hope that the exposure to the Navy by these college graduates will motivate them to share stories with their peers and stimulate interest (and who knows, maybe join us?). Knowing that we have a Navy presence on the AFRS Board of Directors over time, I hope my successors will carry this banner high!
Dustin Carter, a quadruple amputee wrestler, carries his coach, Scott Goodpaster, on his shoulders to demonstrate some of his unique training techniques during a wrestling clinic for wounded warriors at Naval Medical Center San Diego. The clinic is designed by MWR, the Balboa Warrior Athlete Program and the Challenged Athletes Foundation to empower recovering injured military members and give them resources for their future to renew their quality of life. |
GRF: Heading into this year's NRPA/AFRS Congress & Expo in Baltimore, what will be some of the highlights of this year's gathering? What are some of the overarching big themes and issues that will be addressed and looked at?
MEHRER: This year, attendees are going to get a first hand look at what we have discussed here. We will hear from Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Leslye Arsht; our Navy partnership with the Indiana University to deliver a new fitness program for personnel over 40 years of age; and youth initiatives associated with the obesity issue we talked about earlier. The real highlight of course is the awards presentation. While a thank you is often reward enough, there are some deeds that make a contribution worthy of recognition in front of your peers.
OPERATION PLAYGROUND BUILDS 100TH PLAYGROUND
- Hope Springs Eternal in the Gulf Coast
With each new playground built, children in the Gulf Coast region find a little bit of hope to hold on to. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast, KaBOOM!, the national non-profit that empowers communities to build playgrounds, made a commitment to build 100 playgrounds in the areas hardest hit by the storms. On June 14, 2008, KaBOOM! reached its goal when it returned to Bay St. Louis, Miss., the site of its first Operation Playground project, to lead its 100th Operation Playground project at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park.
“When KaBOOM! began Operation Playground just three months after Hurricane Katrina struck, those outside the area were incredulous, believing that playgrounds were the last thing people needed in the midst of the devastation,” said Darell Hammond, CEO and co-founder, KaBOOM! “But we knew that the Gulf Coast's youngest residents needed safe places to escape the stress of the rebuilding effort and reclaim their childhood.”
THE STORY OF GABRIEL'S GARDEN:
- Teach
Your Parents Well
Upon hearing the story of Gabriel's Garden — the all-inclusive playground in Jackson, Tenn. — the famous Crosby, Stills & Nash song, “Teach Your Children,” came to mind, particularly the lyric, “teach your parents well,” because Gabriel Walden (who has a rare genetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome, which requires him to use a wheelchair) and his siblings, Kati and Russ — the inspiration for this playground — taught a lot of grown-ups, including their parents, that there is no obstacle that can't be overcome, no dream too big.
Inspiration also came from Gabe's brother Russ. His mother, Darlene Walden explained that “Russ found a small brochure once in a toy he had received, that pictured a special swing with a high back, armrests, and safety straps made especially for children like Gabe. At that moment, my whole family caught the 'bug' and got excited and decided to approach the city and others about finding out how to make a place to play for children — every angel of every ability.”
Departments:
Initial Thoughts: An “All-Inclusive” World…
Rec Notes:
With Soldiers Lives on the Line,
Army Launches Warrior Adventure Quest
Warrior Adventure Quest combines high-adrenaline sports, such as whitewater rafting with Battlemind training, to help soldiers adjust to the return to garrison life from the combat environment.
Photo courtesy of FMWRC. |
As soldiers return home from long, stressful deployments, the Army is finding that providing support and programs to ease the transition to life back home is critically important. The Army also discovered over the past few years that there has been an increasingly high rate of incidences involving soldiers getting injured or killed in a reckless accident (one that could have been avoided), within the first 90 days of returning from deployment.
In fact, since OIF/OEF began at least 186 soldiers have died in accidents within one year of returning from combat, and 168 of them within the first six months of their redeployment, according to Army Family & Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command (FMWRC) officials. These numbers do not include FY2008. Approximately 60 percent of the accident fatalities are sergeants or below, and the overwhelming majority of the accidents involve high speed, alcohol or both.
These alarming findings led the Army to create a new program — Warrior Adventure Quest (WAQ) — designed to help soldiers returning from deployment to make the adjustment from a high-paced, high-adrenaline combat environment back to their normal, everyday “home” life. The Army hopes this new program will give soldiers an outlet — the adrenaline rush — they need.
DoD Establishes New Physical
Disability Board
The Department of Defense (DoD) announced in September 2008 the establishment of a new Physical Disability Board of Review (PDBR) to review disability ratings of wounded warriors and provide another avenue of administrative recourse for our wounded veterans. The Air Force has been designated as lead DoD component for operation and management of the PDBR.
“The PDBR has no greater obligation to our wounded, ill and injured servicemembers and former servicemembers than to offer fair and equitable recommendations pertaining to the assignment of disability ratings,” said Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu.
Any servicemember may have his or her case reviewed by the PDBR if he or she meets certain conditions. The member must have been separated from the armed forces between Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2009, due to unfitness for continued military service resulting from a physical disability under chapter 61 of title 10, U.S. Code. Additionally, the member must have received a combined disability rating of 20 percent or less, and have been found not eligible for retirement. By law, once adopted by the service secretary, a PDBR recommendation is final and removes the servicemember's option to pursue subsequent review through the respective military department's Board for the Correction of Military Records. |
Navy's Pilot Program Gets
Sailors in Ship Shape
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U.S. Navy Photo bY Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Erick S. Holmes. |
The Navy unveiled in September a new physical fitness pilot program called Shape, targeted at Navy personnel 40 and over. The pilot program was rolled out at NS San Diego, Calif.; Joint-Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Va.; and NS Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
“Shape is a fitness program for our active-duty population 40 and over,” Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) Assistant Program Manager Lisa R. Sexauer said. “We want to see our senior personnel, enlisted or officers, performing at their maximum capability and at the same time, helping them fend off the effects of aging.”
Marine Corps, Army Implement
New Combat Fitness Test
Sgt. Danielle C.K. Holladay, 24, demonstrates the appropriate technique for the ammunition can lift event of the Combat Fitness Test. Holladay, the chief instructor of the Combat Conditioning Program at the Martial Arts Center for Excellence, is part of Training and Education Command's Corps-wide CFT demonstration tour that kicked off Aug. 18.
Photo by Sgt. Clinton Firstbrook, Division of Public Affairs, Arlington, Va. |
The Army and Marine Corps recently introduced a new Combat Fitness Test, each with a focus on fitness training that more closely reflects what is physically demanded in combat.
For the Marine Corps, the Combat Fitness Test (CFT) is a natural next step in a new functional approach to physical training based on the principles outlined in the document, “A Concept for Functional Fitness,” which was approved on Nov. 6, 2006, by Lt. Gen. James F. Amos, USMC, Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration. The document, created in the Concepts division of the Marine Corps War Fighting Lab, under the Combat Development Command, now stands as the basis for the Marine Corps' new approach to combat physical training. The new training philosophy looks to better prepare Marines for the difficult combat missions they face.
“This concept is a new kind of concept in that it is not focused on an organizational material capability, but rather on preparing Marines for the tough physical challenges they will inevitably face in combat and in peacetime training,” said Amos.
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On the Cover:
Navy Recreation Center (NRC) Solomons Island, Md., has earned its reputation as the “best-kept secret in Southern Maryland,” providing a destination spot — a wonderful vacation retreat or gateaway — for servicemembers and their families.
Photo courtesy of NAS Patuxent River, Md.
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