Becoming a Para-trooper!
Mental Side (pt. 3)
Strong Mental Fortitude
Airmen must complete 80-weeks of training before receiving the title, Air Force rescue man. The para-rescue man code states: "It is my duty as a para-rescue man to save life and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do, that others may live." Air Force para-rescue men, an elite corps of Airmen, are responsible for combat search and rescue missions. They provide life-saving services to Airmen, the joint-service team and civilians in all types of environments.
- Senior Master Sgt. Douglas Isaack 342nd Training Squadron Indoctrination Course Commandant: "The job is extremely demanding due to the challenging mission profiles we execute in all environments and in extreme conditions. We can't let fatigue, stress, pain or injuries get in the way of making sure we do our job right to save a person's life. The key to developing resiliency is equipping Airmen to persevere, control emotions and bounce back from difficult and stressful situations. Whether you're doing physical training or you're being a good wingman, you're proving to yourself that your teammates can count on you to be there, do the right thing, do it right, and never quit."
- Tech. Sgt. Anthony Cervantes 342nd Training Squadron para-rescue instructor: "It's a tough course. It takes a resilient mind-set, reminding yourself why you are there every day.While on deployments, everything is generated around the effort of the team. Your mind has to push aside all the chaos and focus on the task at hand. It's the essence in putting others before yourself."
Recommendations about assessing and evaluating the psychological readiness of training candidates for high-risk, high-demand operational duty positions involve two stages: selecting-in and selecting-out.
The select-out phase involves the assessment of psychological functioning focused on the presence or history of psychopathology. This involves areas of emotional, social, and behavioral functioning diagnostic of a psychiatric disorder or that are maladaptive under a wide range of conventional, routine, and non-high-demand conditions.
To help aid those who may suffer from mental illnesses, recommended AETC embed “seasoned” operational psychologists are stationed within flight medicine and operational units to improve USAF capabilities and effectively assess the readiness and fitness of training candidates and identifying those with a history of psychopathology. At the end of the day, the Air Force wants to help every individual, however there is so much required of a rescue man that anyone suffering mental illnesses may not be able to move through 'the pipeline.'
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