Warrior Adventure Quest (WAQ) is an Army RESET training tool designed to introduce Soldiers to activities that serve as alternatives to aberrant behaviors often associated with accidents involving recently re-deployed Soldiers. This tool presents coping outlets to help Soldiers realize their own new level of normal after deployment and "move on" with their lives.
WAQ combines existing MWR Outdoor Recreation high adventure activities (e.g. rock climbing, mountain biking, paintball, scuba, ropes courses, skiing, zip lines, white water rafting, and others) with a leader-led after action debriefing (L-LAAD) tool developed by Army Medical Department (AMEDD) center and school.
The WAQ program has been developed into five phases.
Phase I, Leader Training, is for all SSG and above participants and teaches them how to facilitate a leader-led after action debrief
(L-LAAD) in response to a significant event in an operational environment.
Phase II, teaches these unit leaders how to utilize the same L-LAAD technique when facilitation surrounds an outdoor adventure activity.
Phase III, Soldier Training, presents to all program Soldier participants concepts like Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, Combat Operational Stress Control and Post Traumatic Growth, coping skills, and how it all relates to the Warrior Adventure Quest program.
Phase IV, is the outdoor adventure activity (e.g., paddling, riding, climbing, etc.) where team building is combined with challenging activity skills.
Phase V, is the actual facilitation of the L-LAAD by the unit leaders with their unit members to realize connections between the activity they have just experienced and the challenges they may be experiencing in their daily lives.
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