A recent tour of the new Fort Riley resiliency campus by BrigGen Rhonda Cornum, Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness director, provided a forum for the Army to communicate the purpose of its ‘total fitness’ concepts.

Comprehensive Soldier Fitness has “five pillars:”  social, emotional, physical, spiritual and Family.

“I look at resiliency training as a preparation for life. The skills you learn, whether it is stress management or communication, those are skills that are equally useful whether you are dealing with the problem of a medical diagnose or losing your job,” Cornum said. “It’s beautiful and I think it’s probably No. 1.”…

“Our vision is people who are physically fit, emotionally strong and mentally tough, and it is a commitment to doing that, not just waiting in some reactive mode until somebody has a crisis or problem,” she said. 

Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks, 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley commanding general, said the approach the post is taking with CSF is to make everyone on post stronger.

“The Army’s motto is “Army Strong,” but the idea of what makes you strong is the approach that we are taking to comprehensive fitness and it applies to more than Soldiers. Our effort here is going to be broad. We want everyone here to get stronger,” he said.

By all accounts the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness initiative seems to be a sincere effort to help Army Soldiers, despite critics’ accusations to the contrary.  The US military is sometimes a monstrosity of a bureaucracy and can sometimes fail in execution even with the best of intents.  With CSF, however, which will admittedly be a living program, the Army appears to be on target.