by Dr Dave M. Jenkins

Created on: February 03, 2007   Last Updated: March 31, 2010

I had the unique opportunity to work in the Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC) clinic at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan during my one year deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom VII. At the clinic we dealt with the unseen wounds of combat stress and operational stress; the hard to quantify psychological injuries. Because of the environment and missions, COSC did not just wait for patients to come to us. COSC had a robust prevention program and went to where the Warriors were by visiting Forward Operating Bases, often referred to as FOB's. These visits also aided in de-stigmatizing mental health operations.

Anxiety can be a problem for anyone, whether distracted by circumstances, future worries or past trauma. Understandably because of the combat environment, anxiety was one of the most common complaints presented to the COSC. The complaints ranged from of a combination of concentration impairments, sleep disturbances, irritability, nervousness, panic attacks and appetite changes. Often these symptoms impaired duty performance, morale and mission effectiveness.

While deployed, Soldiers are outside their normal comfort zone and their typical means of coping is disrupted. To be successful, they must develop additional means of coping, de-stressing and relaxing. The art of relaxation is a learned skill. One that is not so easy to master while deployed and hearing the sounds of combat in the distance. However learning to relax and dealing with anxiety is vital to mental health. The benefits of relaxation have long been studied and documented. This article is not intended to revisit the benefits of relaxation but to highlight one method used to achieve the goal of relaxation.
Given the operation tempo and sometimes limited amount of session to work with patients, COSC needed a fast and effective method of teaching Soldiers relaxation skills. Additionally, the method needed to be easy to recall and portable to accommodate FOB visits.

So a program call Basic Fundamentals of Relaxation was developed in order to meet these specific needs. It was modeled after the well known basic fundamentals of riffle marksman. The marksman fundaments are drilled into every Warrior throughout their military career and re-enforced at every firing range. Those fundamentals are breathing control, aim, steady position, and trigger squeeze. As an added benefit, mastery of the relaxation fundamentals re-enforces the marksman fundamentals and serves to make the Warrior

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