APRIL 26, 2024 – Students from the School for Command Preparation’s (SCP) Chief of Staff of the Army’s Core Course (CSACC), also known as the Pre-Command / Command Sergeants Major Course, participated in a Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Day here April 23, 2024, to assess their individual fitness and learn more about the five readiness domains that define the H2F program.
These future brigade and battalion leadership teams and their spouses participated in in-depth training on the five domains of fitness that define H2F: physical, mental, nutritional, spiritual and sleep readiness.
“As the Army’s future senior commanders, you can help promote the health of the force by continuing to implement and embrace the Holistic Health and Fitness system,” said Maj. Gen. John Kline, Commanding General for the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training speaking at the H2F Day opening event. “I don’t have nearly the influence that you all can have on its success, and I’d like to thank you in advance for all you will do to support H2F in your formations.”
The SCP is part of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center. The mission of the SCP is to conduct resident Army Strategic Education Program courses like Pre-Command Course, Command Sergeants Major Course, and Command Team Spouse courses to help prepare these leaders and their spouses for the challenges of command.
“The CSA’s Core Course is a Total Army program that educates thousands of leaders annually in the art and science of command leadership at the battalion and brigade levels,” said Col. Jim Pangelinan, the SCP Director. “It serves as the last formal education that soon-to-be battalion and brigade commanders and CSMs receive prior to taking on these most consequential and transformational leadership roles.”
Experts from all five readiness domains descended on Fort Leavenworth to train and educate these future leaders and build advocates for the H2F program to further transform the Army culture of fitness. The day included a circuit physical fitness workout, briefings from different domain subject matter experts, to include the Army Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Mary Izaguirre and the Chief of Chaplains, Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Bill Green, and finished in the evening with a “spiritual readiness dinner.”
“H2F signals the biggest doctrinal, cognitive, and behavioral shift in the Army’s attitude and resourcing of soldier’s health, fitness, and individual readiness,” Pangelin said. “SCP concurred with our higher leadership’s belief that H2F is critically important to add into the curriculum here. For the cultural shift toward H2F to occur across the Army, it requires engaged battalion and brigade commanders and CSMs to troop lead this change across the force.”
For many students, this was the first time in their careers with a full day of training focused on the five domains of H2F.
“I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with the H2F program, just bits and pieces here and there,” said Col. Dave Stewart, a PCC student and future brigade commander. “Today was my first experience learning about the program holistically with experts providing information on each domain.”
Students attending the first full day of H2F focused training talked about the importance of leadership fully implementing the H2F program across the Army.
“I think it’s important for senior leaders at battalion and brigade level to understand H2F completely and get the buy-in, because this is going down to the lowest level,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Craig Anderson, a CSM Course student. “So, being at brigade level, I think I now understand more about how H2F can be used as a resource to better our Soldiers in all aspects of fitness, the spiritual domain, the sleep domain and the physical domain and in the mental domain as well.”
Stewart echoed those sentiments and the importance of setting the example.
“As leaders, we have to lead from the front. It starts at the top,” Stewart said. “When we go into our organizations, we have to walk the walk and talk the talk. We have to look internal to ourselves, and genuinely embrace the program, so we can communicate and demonstrate the benefits of H2F to our Soldiers. We have to be authentic.”
When discussing the ongoing assessment of H2F’s impact on units fielded with the system, Kline noted its ability to prevent injury.
“We’ve seen 140 percent fewer injury referrals in fielded units,” Kline said. “This is really good news for the medical community. H2F is human performance optimization. We are trying to be preventive, to be left of injury so that the injury never happens.”
Often described as a cultural change in how the Army manages health and fitness, H2F will continue to expand across all components and will be a feature in much of the Army’s institutional education, much as it was here during this iteration of the PCC.
Leader investment is essential to promote, train, prioritize, and improve the readiness of Soldiers and units. Leaders drive cultural change by providing the resources for that change. The success or failure of the H2F system depends upon the quality of its leadership.” -FM 7-22
Story by Jonathan Dahms
U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training