Sometimes all a campaign needs is a little rebranding.
Three years after the Air Force launched the Comprehensive Airman Fitness program — an attempt to help airmen balance their busy lives through targeted programs, activities and resiliency skills — leaders realized it hadn’t taken hold. In fact, airmen who were questioned didn’t know the programs existed, said Capt. Sybil Taunton, spokeswoman for USAFE-AFAFRICA.
So U.S. Air Forces Europe decided to give the four-pillar approach to physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being a new name and a new vibe. The command launched “RUFit” on Oct. 1.
“RUFit is one of those catchy taglines that people can hashtag and develop programs around it,” Taunton said. Airmen are encouraged to #RUFit on Facebook or other social media sites to promote their own fitness routines, she said.
Taunton said that various bases and major commands have developed similar programs to communicate the four pillars in diverse ways that will stick with airmen. For example, many squadrons have started a resiliency program for airmen to train with master resilience instructors and trainers, she said. The Air Force announced in August it is working to increase the ratio of MRTs from one trainer per 1,000 airmen to one trainer per squadron.
“Our Air Force has made a significant investment in programs focused on our people,” said Gen. Frank Gorenc, USAFE-AFAFRICA commander, in a release. “Airmen need to know what services are available to them and where to go to find those resources.”
A major component of this campaign is a “one-stop” web-based tool that lists specific services and contact information for each base and each service offered in the command, Taunton said.
Members can find more information on their base website about local programs like Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment, known as ADAPT, or find classes on balancing their nutrition, and even support classes on tobacco cessation.
But each pillar isn’t meant to function as a checklist of accomplishments for the week or month — airmen should be evaluating themselves every day to build a culture that values holistic fitness, Taunton said.
For Col. Leslie Claravall, the four pillars became the driving factor to get back to duty.
In January, Claravall noticed she had numbness in various parts of her body. She was diagnosed with a cavernous angioma, a congenital traumatic brain injury in her brain stem, and was medically evacuated a month later to the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas.
“I thought nothing of it; I thought maybe this is just tingling and it will go away,” Claravall said. She had surgery in March and shortly after had to relearn basic motor skills used to eat, speak and walk.
“I lost my independence, and felt like I was at the lowest point in my life,” Claravall, who is the chief of the Medical Operations Division and Command Nurse Office of the Command Surgeon at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, said.
During her six weeks of inpatient and eight weeks of outpatient recovery, Claravall said she worked with the hospital chaplains and nurses to gain physical and spiritual strength. Her husband and family members became her social rock, but Claravall had to rely on herself to build up her mental health.
“In April, the Air Force didn’t think I was going to get well enough to return to active duty,” Claravall said. Even with minor setbacks, she pushed herself to do her best in therapy and even refused a wheelchair so she could build up her strength.
“One of the nurses said to me, ‘Tell your coworkers when you return you want to hear what you can do instead of what you can’t do,’ and that’s what I relied on,” said Claravall, who has been in the Air Force 27 years.
Claravall, 49, returned to Ramstein on Sept. 3, and said using the RUFit campaign pillars will help her maintain her Air Force career and fitness goals.
“Prior to when I was sick, I was able to do 60 pushups and 60 situps in a minute, and I can do the situps, but pushups I’m at 40, and I’m running a little slower,” she said. “My goal by February is to run as fast as I did beforehand, and to me, that’s such a victory.”
Going through an illness as a medic, her career mentoring chief nurses resonates a little differently.
“Never being a patient before, I really appreciate what the medics do, and … to be on that side, I’m just so proud to be part of the nurse corps,” Claravall said.
The mission for RUFit and all CAF programs across the Air Force is to “take care of ourselves and each other to tackle everyday challenges,” said Air Force Chief of Staff spouse Betty Welsh in a release. “This is not just a job — this is a lifestyle, for our Airmen and for us,” she said. “Our support system is in our military and in our families.”
