By SFC Nichole Bonham
Ft. Carson, CO – A Warrior in Transition is a Soldier with an illness or injury caused or aggravated by military service who is receiving care from a Warrior Transition Battalion, or WTB. There is a mission statement on the Ft. Carson WTB website that states, “My job is to heal as I transition back to duty or continue serving the nation as a veteran in my community. This is not a status, but a mission.”
That last part is the kicker. The part that makes this the most astonishing program I have ever encountered in the military. What it boils down to is this: I am currently on orders, essentially deployed, where the entire mission revolves around me. The sole purpose of this deployment is to make me better – physically, emotionally, spiritually. Whatever I need in order to be effective in the next phase of my life, whether that be returning to duty or leaving the military, is what the WTB is here to help me accomplish.
I have been in the Utah National Guard for 20 years, the last 11 years of that in an active duty status. I joined out of a sense of patriotism. I wanted to honor those men and women who had made personal sacrifices in their lives that resulted in the freedoms I hold dear. I felt a sense of duty to future generations to be a part of maintaining those freedoms. And I have been very proud of my service. I haven’t made any notable contributions or set the nation on fire with my brilliance, but I did take my turn at the gate. I stood up. And that meant that someone else, somewhere else in the chain, got the chance to take a rest. But I’m not blind, and I’m not stupid, so it didn’t escape my notice that we’re not perfect. That the system, the bureaucracy, the Army isn’t perfect. But a program like the WTB makes me feel like we’re possibly headed in the right direction.
There’s a certain amount of internal conflict involved in being a member of the military. We pray for peace but train for war. It certainly makes me feel a little off sometimes to know that my job, my daily livelihood, depends on the fact that there is strife in the world. That if everlasting peace broke out tomorrow, I’d be out of work. It’s a different mindset than someone who has a career teaching children, or healing the sick, or building homes. It’s even a different mindset than a policeman.
Defending against all threats demands a higher level of proactive preparedness than the more reactive ‘protect and serve’. And then, because we’ve trained for war and don’t want to feel like we’ve wasted our time, we often welcome the chance to prove ourselves. So how do you go from that mindset back to a civilian lifestyle? It’s a question that our military, our nation, has been struggling with for years.
The Warrior Transition program is trying to answer that question by helping wounded Soldiers develop a Comprehensive Transition Plan (CTP), a living plan of action that focuses on the Soldier’s goals – and it goes far beyond just physical recovery. I’ve had to submit to my leadership a six-page document with clearly stated goals for where I wanted to be in my career, in my family life, within my social network, what improvements I hoped for in my emotional state, and even what I felt I could work on spiritually. I had to include specific statements on how I intended to accomplish those goals, what actions I would take in the next few weeks and months that would lead to those long-term objectives. And it’s the WTB’s mission to help me learn how to achieve my stated intent, how to build the habits it takes to make my plans a reality. That’s where the ‘living’ part comes in to the living plan of action. Because my leadership will sit with me every few weeks or months and hold me to my goals, verify my progress, show me how to refine my plan. Help me learn how to focus on what I can do, not what I can’t do. And it feels really good.
Sometimes being in the military can leave you feeling a bit like a chess piece. The Warrior Transition program reminds you that you’re human. Knowing that the Army cares enough about its transitioning Soldiers to create a program like this gives me great hope for our future.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: SFC Nichole Bonham has been a member of the 128th MPAD since 2008, serving as the unit's readiness noncommissioned officer until recently transitioning into the WTB at Fort Carson, Colorado. She deployed with the unit to Baghdad in 2008-2009.)
That last part is the kicker. The part that makes this the most astonishing program I have ever encountered in the military. What it boils down to is this: I am currently on orders, essentially deployed, where the entire mission revolves around me. The sole purpose of this deployment is to make me better – physically, emotionally, spiritually. Whatever I need in order to be effective in the next phase of my life, whether that be returning to duty or leaving the military, is what the WTB is here to help me accomplish.
I have been in the Utah National Guard for 20 years, the last 11 years of that in an active duty status. I joined out of a sense of patriotism. I wanted to honor those men and women who had made personal sacrifices in their lives that resulted in the freedoms I hold dear. I felt a sense of duty to future generations to be a part of maintaining those freedoms. And I have been very proud of my service. I haven’t made any notable contributions or set the nation on fire with my brilliance, but I did take my turn at the gate. I stood up. And that meant that someone else, somewhere else in the chain, got the chance to take a rest. But I’m not blind, and I’m not stupid, so it didn’t escape my notice that we’re not perfect. That the system, the bureaucracy, the Army isn’t perfect. But a program like the WTB makes me feel like we’re possibly headed in the right direction.
There’s a certain amount of internal conflict involved in being a member of the military. We pray for peace but train for war. It certainly makes me feel a little off sometimes to know that my job, my daily livelihood, depends on the fact that there is strife in the world. That if everlasting peace broke out tomorrow, I’d be out of work. It’s a different mindset than someone who has a career teaching children, or healing the sick, or building homes. It’s even a different mindset than a policeman.
Defending against all threats demands a higher level of proactive preparedness than the more reactive ‘protect and serve’. And then, because we’ve trained for war and don’t want to feel like we’ve wasted our time, we often welcome the chance to prove ourselves. So how do you go from that mindset back to a civilian lifestyle? It’s a question that our military, our nation, has been struggling with for years.
The Warrior Transition program is trying to answer that question by helping wounded Soldiers develop a Comprehensive Transition Plan (CTP), a living plan of action that focuses on the Soldier’s goals – and it goes far beyond just physical recovery. I’ve had to submit to my leadership a six-page document with clearly stated goals for where I wanted to be in my career, in my family life, within my social network, what improvements I hoped for in my emotional state, and even what I felt I could work on spiritually. I had to include specific statements on how I intended to accomplish those goals, what actions I would take in the next few weeks and months that would lead to those long-term objectives. And it’s the WTB’s mission to help me learn how to achieve my stated intent, how to build the habits it takes to make my plans a reality. That’s where the ‘living’ part comes in to the living plan of action. Because my leadership will sit with me every few weeks or months and hold me to my goals, verify my progress, show me how to refine my plan. Help me learn how to focus on what I can do, not what I can’t do. And it feels really good.
Sometimes being in the military can leave you feeling a bit like a chess piece. The Warrior Transition program reminds you that you’re human. Knowing that the Army cares enough about its transitioning Soldiers to create a program like this gives me great hope for our future.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: SFC Nichole Bonham has been a member of the 128th MPAD since 2008, serving as the unit's readiness noncommissioned officer until recently transitioning into the WTB at Fort Carson, Colorado. She deployed with the unit to Baghdad in 2008-2009.)
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