Page 93 - JSOM Spring 2025

one teammate knew sign language because an immedi- personal lives across these various communities, but it’s
ate family member was deaf. Then one of our casualties definitely rewarding. All of this was made possible be-
was deaf so the ability to sign was invaluable. The seren- cause my civilian, military, and medical families worked
dipitous alignment of worldviews, skills, and talents that together to form a responsive support network. This safe-
comes from the rich experiences people have in their own ty-net provided a sense of calm as I attempted to balance
families, the military or medicine, create really interesting on the high-wire of life, which demanded me to manage
capabilities in deployment. Austere medicine provides professional and personal expectations when transition-
an environment to put those strange and beautiful hu- ing between very different worlds.
man connections together for the good of SOF missions.
Leaning into the diversity of each teammates’ back- This family formation accommodated a myriad of daily ad-
grounds positively increases our ability, which enhances versity, which emerged from the intersection of medical, mil-
the organizations’ reputation. SOST has become known itary, and civilian communities. Ability to skillfully engage,
for adapting to complex environments. interpret, and integrate daily stresses within and across these
diverse communities helped form resonant new connections
This family formation leveraged eclectic experiences gained that created expansive social support.
within civilian, medical, and military relationships for innova-
tive problem-solving. Its team cohesion optimized opportuni- Willingness to work at social intersection points both excites
ties for ingenuity, which emerged from diverse backgrounds. and induces fear. The resultant convergent momentum trans-
forms ambiguity into discovery, enables deeper, richer con-
Applying ingenuity induces both excitement and fear. Perfor- nections, and optimizes short-term unconventional resilience.
mance pressure that demands a response outside of predict- Willful engagement with procedural uncertainty enhances the
able courses of action could temporarily unbalance a team’s medic’s, team’s, and organization’s tolerance of vulnerability
COG. However, openness to work with unexpected events during the character refinement process, optimizing long-term
transforms friction into fortune, adapts ambiguity to optimize unconventional resilience.
short-term unconventional resilience, and enables better out-
comes. Long-term unconventional resilience is optimized by Degradation of Unconventional Resilience
the medic’s, team’s, and organization’s trust in the value of vul- The first family formation that degrades unconventional re-
nerability to enhance the character refinement process. silience is a surrogate formation. Within this formation, only
SOF-specific competence and expertise is acknowledged. COG
The second family formation that optimizes unconventional is engaged by withholding connection from anyone not in the
resilience is a harmonious formation. Within this formation, SOF family, reinforcing stereotypical action amid the character
diverse relationship connections across civilian, medical, and refinement process. The following quote illustrates this forma-
military communities engage COG through social support tion type:
networks. The following quote illustrates this formation type:
The biggest reason to be part of SOST is because of the
It was hard, but important to find a balanced matrix that SOF family environment. What draws people to the SOF
supports our family, military, and medical lives. I did a spe- world is the family atmosphere shown in all the movies
cific training program because my spouse worked Mon- and TV shows. SOF has small teams where the guys feel
day through Friday. This military medical training program like they’re brothers and they know each other better than
allowed me to work every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, anybody else; even better than their own family members.
which enabled me to stay at home during the week and SOF guys understand what family means. If we are honest,
take care of my kids while my spouse worked. Then my the bonds formed in SOST are so much stronger than with
spouse was with the kids on the weekend. To maintain our families of origin or any professional bonds formed in
situational awareness as a family, we made a decision medicine. Our teammates are all we have when we de-
that when we came home in the evening, we would have ploy. We rely on them, trust them, believe in them, lean
mealtime together at the dining room table with the TV on them, and know we have each other’s back. A real fam-
off. On weekends, we focused on doing family activities. ily is the people with whom you share the triumphs and
Although not sustainable in the long-term, these experi- talk about the failures—not the family into which you were
ences helped us to organize our priorities in a way that born or your specialized professional community that only
actually prepared us as a family for the time away I would sees their work as a job or a way to make money. When
experience with SOST. My favorite time in the military was it comes to family life and working at a Trauma One, it’s
with SOST because of the family atmosphere it creates. all about setting expectations. Everyone—spouses, kids,
I felt secure being able to deploy because SOST set up colleagues—they all need to understand that SOST is THE
a network of relationships that supported my family. We focus. Spouses get frustrated with that reality, but we tell
also had family activities and outings to familiarize our teammates to say, “You very clearly knew what we were
family with the SOST mission and SOF culture. As a team, getting into.” We’ve even seen some colleagues at the
we regularly socialized together. I am grateful for my fam- Trauma One who didn’t really understand what SOST was
ily because they navigated the day-to-day challenges of about and it caused irritation. When civilian colleagues
my absence. I also appreciate my time within the SOST don’t understand our SOST family, it creates friction.
family. I’m particularly proud of the work SOST did to Mostly, we just try to avoid talking to them about anything
create a medical community when we integrated into the other than clinical stuff.
Level 1 trauma center. The hospital leadership took pride
in the work SOST did for them and for the military. It’s This family formation neglects the needs, concerns, and ex-
not easy to balance and harmonize our professional and periences of interpersonal relationships that exist outside of

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