Co-Founding a first of its kind wilderness program for the Military.

Lay all your gear out in the courtyard. Pack it up in a hurry. Lace up those uncomfortable, mass produced combat boots, lose sleep, hate the food, and get followed by rain clouds.

Welcome to, "the field."

The words camping, backpacking, hiking, and outdoor recreation, didn't exist. It was all the field, and it all made me say, "never again".

So, how did I become a co-founder for the first ever Wilderness Personal Growth Program for the Navy?

Divine appointments are meetings not bound by time and space, they are seemingly designed for us.?

Unbeknownst to me, a gentleman named Commander Brandon Harding was in the audience on November 21, 2018 as I was speaking at a safety stand down on Camp Lejeune. The audience had just heard a true and vulnerable story. One filled with pain and sorrow, but also one with redemption and resilience.

They heard my fathers story of watching his first born son drown while he was stationed in Germany with the Army. They heard my story of watching my father take his own life after drowning himself in alcohol. They heard of a struggle with civilian life following two tours to Iraq, they heard what it was like to be broken after a near fatal motorcycle accident. They heard my story.

Above all, they heard how to find a "why" from adversity. How to weather the storms of life and to turn pain into strength and how to grow beyond our trauma and learn to live again.

On that day Commander Harding and I discovered that we shared a unique and unlikely tool for personal growth.

Wellness through the wild...

Two weeks after my speaking engagement, Commander Harding and I had coffee just outside of Camp Lejeune. We began laying the groundwork for what would later become known as, "Wilderness Personal Growth Experiences".

I brought my knowledge of outdoor education that was learned as the recipient of the first veteran scholarship for Outward Bound North Carolinas Instructor Development Course.

Commander Harding brought 30 years of leadership and mentorship gained over guiding thousands of military members toward personal and professional betterment.

Together we shared a belief that through wilderness exploration we could discover things about ourselves. We believed that we could turn "the field" into a place where personal growth could take place.

For those of you like me, who immediately look at a collar for rank. You will notice that Commander Harding is also a Chaplain. A common misconception about military Chaplains is that they simply preach and teach service members about religion. Maybe some do, but not this one.

Of the accumulative months spent on trails with Chaplain Harding, I observed a form of mentorship unlike anything I had ever seen. He did not hold service every morning and demand we say grace at evening supper. He did not hike with his bible in his hand and preach to (or at) service members. I like to think that the time Chaplain Harding spent in combat zones, serving infantry companies in places most do not wish to go, shaped him into just as much of a Commander as he is a Chaplain. He has mentored officers, enlisted, married couples and those who were losing their way. He has done so in a way that simply cannot be explained, it must be witnessed.

Although we have lead trips as equals in the wilderness I have continually found myself just as much of a participant, growing with the service members due to his mentorship.

Just before Chaplain Harding and I met, I was on a roller coaster of a ride. I had instructed a 60 hour endurance event in Mongolia with Spartan Race, spoke at a Marine Corps ball in Atlantic City, worked in Alaska for several months, and participated in a dog mushing course in the boundary waters. I was developing an undeniable stack of proof that I was who I claimed to be. Throughout my time guiding and leading events, I met many people that would play a role in this programs success. I assimilated the leadership personnel, experienced technical instructors, created the branding imagery to translate our vision, and finalized the contract with Marine Corps Community Services to create an effective outlet for service members to journey toward wellness.

Chaplain Harding and I completed this massive puzzle that had been in our dreams for years. He brought so many pieces to the table that I needed, as did I. We didn't know when, or how, but we knew the puzzle needed to be completed.

We are now co-founders of this military program that has gone on to serve hundreds of service members. The program continues in North Carolina and has expanded to Washington state with Chaplain Harding at its helm.

The program focuses on using the wilderness as a medium, an equalizer that levels the playing field for everyone. Once on the same level, those walls of expectation and judgement come down. We got to see in tact units that have deployed oversees furthering their bond. If you have deployed, you know the power of that statement. Service members are guided physically and metaphorically while experiencing the disconnect that only the wilderness can provide.

Rank is left at the base and everyone, including the Commander, are on a first name basis. We eat, sleep, hike, and live, as equals. We endure hardships as equals and celebrate victories as equals. Every participant is responsible for the necessary jobs on an expedition. Cooking, cleaning, navigating, filtering water, gathering firewood, and any other duties are done by all.

We had to ensure that "the field" experience would not be OUR experience. Rank being left at the door is what we call the tone set; the rest is what we call the framework. The hard and soft skills are building blocks for experiential learning, the process of learning through experience. New muscle memory is being developed on physical and mental levels when were exposed to new environments.

By creating an environment with the best possible gear, passionate teachers, and a culture of equally shared responsibility, our experiences were able to form new behaviors. This opened up new possibilities for the military to engage with its service members. Which in turn, increases combat readiness, effectiveness and moral.

One of the most influential tools at Chaplain Hardings disposal was Immunity to Change (ITC).

The?Immunity to Change? (ITC) methodology is designed to help individuals, teams and organizations attain deeply sought changes by bringing this internal unconscious resistance to change to light.

Dr. Robert Kegan and Dr. Lisa Lahey spent ten years developing and researching change, they then developed an award-winning coaching method based on their research. The year long certification process focuses on the fact that the mind, like the body, has its own immune system. Healthy immune system, healthy ability to change behaviors.

Compounding can be a negative or a positive. In our case, it was positive. Combining outdoor education, experiential learning, immunity to change, and creating an entirely new environment for service members defeated "the field".

Lay all your gear out. Pack it up in correctly. Lace up those high quality, comfortable trail shoes. Get sleep, love the food, and still get followed by rain clouds.

Welcome to, wellness through the wild.

* This article has been reviewed and approved by Chaplain Harding. Please reach out to him at https://resetcoaching.com