Page 96 - JSOM Spring 2024

The organization outlines general allowances and standards feedback to a second draft and served as a military medical ex-
for bag sets that support general SOF mission needs. One of pert in redacting findings. JD acted as liaison to the Air Force
these general standards is making the airway component a Special Operations community, specifically the 24 Special Op-
necessary element of all bag sets. At the tactical level, med- erations Wing and Special Operations Surgical Teams; JD also
ical teams are given freedom of maneuver to determine the orchestrated all approvals for field observations and served as
best composition of a bag set for a particular SOF mission. AFSOC medical expert during the data analysis process. SLH
Unique to the airway component is that weight is dynamically obtained funding and IRB approval. All authors read and ap-
balanced across all of the bags such that each individual SOF proved the final manuscript.
medic carries a portion of the bag set’s payload. Individual
SOF medics organize the weight of their portion of the airway Disclosures
component, according to their individual medical contribution JB, JW-B, JD, and SLH have no financial relationship to this
to the SOF mission. study. EAJ served as the Senior Lead Research Scientist on this
project and was paid through the following contracting com-
Like the bag sets, the organization establishes the general com- panies: Parsons Corporation, ABSS Solutions, Inc. / 1st Ameri-
position of the SOF medical team. When the organization is can Systems and Services, LLC, Innovative Employee Solutions
functioning in support of unconventional resilience it recog- (IES), and SURVICE Engineering.
nizes that, like the airway component, bonding is essential to
practical performance across the deployment cycle. When the Funding
organization is unconventionally resilient, it acts like an agent This research was sponsored by funding (#FU 20-042) from
that supports and protects the formation and enhancement of the Air Force Research Laboratory–United States Air Force
tensive bonding patterns, which help modulate the right re- School of Aerospace Medicine (AFRL-USAFSAM) through the
lationship with performance pressure across the deployment Studies and Analysis Program.
cycle. Teams are allowed freedom of maneuver to form bonds
because the organization recognizes that prescriptive bonding Disclaimer
does not enable the adaptation necessary to support the dy- The Public Affairs Office, United States Air Force 60th Medical
namic and ambiguous nature of SOF missions. Group at Travis AFB, has approved this publication for uni-
versal distribution. The Institutional Review Board of the Air
When the organization is not unconventionally resilient, rules Force Research Laboratory approved the study as an exempt
established at the strategic level either over- or under-define protocol (#FWR20200104) in August 2020. The information,
the composition of the metaphorical airway component of the content and/or conclusions do not necessarily represent the
bag sets. Controlling who is allowed to enter the ecosystem official position or policy of Air Force Research Laboratory–
of relationships and how they are allowed to bond within the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, the De-
ecosystem, thwarts the organization’s ability to act as a tensive partment of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
protective agent. Consequently, teams either constrict to form
exclusive relationships that cause rigid bonds, or they expand References
to form superficial relationships. In response, individual SOF 1. Jeschke EA, Baker JB, Wyma-Bradley J, Dorsch J, Huffman SL.
medics tactically engage the pressure of performance by either Conventional Resilience and the Impact of Catastrophic Injury
taking on the entire weight of restrictive bonding patterns or Exposure on Special Operations Surgical Teams. Journal of Special
displacing the weight superficially onto other teammates. Operations Medicine: a Peer Reviewed Journal for SOF Medical
Professionals. Published online 2023:FHIP-DWHB.
2. Jeschke EA, Baker JB, Wyma-Bradley J, Dorsch J, Huffman SL. Un-
Conclusion: The Pragmatic Value conventional resilience: an operational model. J Spec Oper Med.
2023(4):64–68.
of Bonding Patterns in SOF Medicine 3. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Joint Force Development. 12 July 2017.
The practical skill of allowing and investigating new social https://www.jcs.mil/Directorates/J7-Joint-Force-Development/.
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ton DC//J7-JE&D//) (2017).
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trust by engaging diverse groups of people in everyday experi- 01/01/2023, 2023. Accessed 10/01/2023, 2023. https://www.tray
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Author Contributions 7. Sandelowski M. The problem of rigor in qualitative research. ANS
EAJ conceived of this study and wrote the protocol; EAJ also Adv Nurs Sci. 1986;8(3):27–37.
recruited participants, collected and analyzed interview data, 8. Timmermans S, Tavory I. Theory construction in qualitative re-
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wrote the first draft of this paper. JW-B contributed sub-
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94 | JSOM Volume 23, Edition 1 / Spring 2024