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Naval Hospital Bremerton's 'Tang Toughness Training' Bolsters Submariners' Resiliency
BREMERTON, Wash. (NNS) -- Run silent, run deep, and run resilient, resolute and restored.
Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB) is offering the "Tang Toughness Training Program" to Sailors assigned to submarines to focus on enhancing their ability and capability in dealing with stress-related illness and injuries.
The program was implemented January 2016 by NHB's mental health department when they identified an unmet need for preventive training for submariners.
"We were seeing a significant number of junior personnel coming in for treatment of stress-related issues, so this course was designed to bridge that gap and ideally keep more submariners from needing specialty mental health services by catching them earlier and giving them the resilience resources they need to manage the stress of the submarine fleet," said Lt. Jessica Forde, NHB staff psychologist.
According to Forde, the name of the program itself is synonymous with the intangible characteristics needed to be successful in a demanding submarine environment.
"The name 'Tang' is adopted from the USS Tang (SS 306), a highly decorated submarine that served during World War II," Forde said, adding that program focuses on toughness and resiliency. "In only nine months of service, she completed four war patrols, sinking an unprecedented 33 Japanese ships. On her fifth and final patrol, she fired her very last torpedo when the torpedo tragically boomeranged towards the sub and sank the vessel. Only nine men survived the sinking."
Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, which is stressed in the course, along with the importance of someone's reaction to stress in getting through difficult situations such as what happened on Tang.
"We believe the USS Tang and the crew that served on her provide an excellent example of what it means to be 'tough and resilient' on a submarine," Forde stated.
The program is credited with contributing to a 38 percent reduction in unplanned losses within the regional submarine forces and has since been expanded to Pacific and Atlantic Fleets.
"There's been measurable impact with less losses, and we have had positive feedback," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Christopher Stephens, NHB mental health leading petty officer and senior behavioral health technician. "We identified a need with submariners for skills to handle unique demands on deployment. We provide a heavy dose of coping skills, and this program has been successful."
He has been the primary lead facilitator and program manager organizing the overlapping classroom, didactics, group sessions, problem-solving, discussions, and scenario-driven curriculum.
The program is provided on a regular basis with the sessions held at the Trident Training Facility onboard Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor that includes topics specifically addressing how a Sailor can take care of their personal physical, mental, social, and spiritual self while running silent and running deep on deployment. Also discussed are conflict management and resolution, healthy relationship and communication skills, even relaxation strategies.
"Other topics include 'cognitive flexibility,' which is adapting the way a person thinks about difficult situations that they experience, in order to generate a more positive outcome," explained Forde. "It is often these very basic factors that get overlooked when someone gets stressed, so the course serves to help individuals re-align to more effectively mitigate the impacts of stressors."
"It's a combination of psychology and education on sharing such principles as getting better sleep and taking better care of yourself," added Stephens, an Allentown, Pennsylvania, native.
Stephens' duties also include scheduling classroom dates, compiling feedback, updating curriculum, and instructing a majority of the topics presented during two eight-hour sessions. He also has created training videos for each module that have been disseminated to other submarine commands to assist other instructors with facilitating the course.
Forde attests the students participate in didactic courses and group activities to solve problems and create solutions to foster the idea of "We're all in this together."
"Sailors can self-refer or be referred from their command if they are identified as individuals who could benefit from additional resources or training," said Forde. "They are often junior submariners at their first operational command, or more senior submariners who are taking on new roles and responsibilities."
Stephens acknowledges those in the course are asking them to think with different strategies that they've used before.
"We're asking them to think with different strategies that they've used before; what is gratifying is knowing that we are helping others and making a positive difference in contributing to our nation's strong submarine force, which is a very high reliability organization," stressed Stephens. "We are giving submariners the tools to be more successful and more efficient at what they do. Along with being successful, we're helping them be happier and secure not just in their occupation, but in their relationships and home life."
Although NHB's mental health department spearheads the program, the command pastoral care department is also heavily engaged with the curriculum. There are also senior submariners that are able to impart and share their experiences to junior submariners attending the course.
"As a submariner, in my opinion, the impact of this program can be huge," stated Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Dana Woodward, Branch Health Clinic Bangor senior enlisted advisor, who has been involved in the program since Aug. 2016. "The Sailor that attends the training spreads the information gained in the program to newly-reported personnel and personnel already on board becoming a force multiplier. People often do not realize working on a submarine at sea is one of the most extreme locations to work on the planet."
"Those extremes require an adjustment to the environment," Woodward continued. "This program can capture a large group of Sailors in the population we see that is affected most and provide effective tools, using people with real-world experience that can speak the language of the audience and understand their environment."
Forde notes NHB's leadership has also been instrumental in promoting the program at the top levels of Submarine Group 9, ensuring support from the top down in identifying patients and ensuring the program continues to be maximally effective.
"We have heard nothing but positive feedback from Submarine Group 9 regarding this course," shared Forde. "We have received Sailors from almost every operational command within Group 9, which tells us that commands are supporting the program and encouraging their Sailors to attend. And to date, nearly 90 percent of participants in the course have not needed additional follow-on mental health services, which suggests that the program is accomplishing its goal of prevention and resilience. Our future goal is to gather additional data to show the overall effectiveness of the program and ensure that we continue to provide a valuable, effective program to the fleet."
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