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Just as NCOs are the backbone of the Army, Staff. Sgt. Jonathan Vinson provided consistency and structure to all eight suicide prevention training presentations held the first two weeks in March throughout the KMC.
“He was my backbone – keeping the presentations moving forward,” said U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern Commander Lt. Col. Mechelle Hale, who was the facilitator for the trainings held for garrison Soldiers, civilians and family members.
Colonel Hale picked Sergeant Vinson, who is the garrison Chaplain’s Office religious support operations NCOIC, to assist with the trainings.
“Without question, he stepped up for the task and did extremely well,” she said.
Kaiserslautern chain-teaching programs were a part of the Army’s Installation Management Command’s directed suicide prevention stand down, which ended March 15.
The goal of the program is to increase community awareness of suicide risk factors and warning signs and intervention guidelines. Military officials reported that suicidal behavior among servicemembers was at an all-time high in 2008 with 143 Soldiers taking their own lives. Presentations revolved around the “Beyond the Front” interactive video. Facilitators and narrators also engaged the audience on the decision-making process in saving a Soldier’s life.
“Such interaction made the training personal and interesting, and the video we watched along with the narration done by Sergeant Vinson was excellent,” said Lisa Hartmann, the garrison’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation marketing program manager, who attended the garrison-sponsored training held March 11 at the Galaxy Theater on Vogelweh.
Making sure everyone understood was always on Sergeant Vinson’s mind as he was relating the information from the screen to the audience, he said.
“With my deep and loud voice, it makes Soldiers pay attention so they are actually hearing the material,” he said. “This is extremely important, especially when talking about the triggers that are common with Soldiers.”
Sgt. 1st Class Carolyn Johnson, directorate of plans, training, mobility and security operations NCO, said she enjoyed the training.
“I really enjoyed this type of training because there was more interaction than most I’ve attended,” said Sergeant Johnson, who has been in the Army for
20 years.
Sergeant Vinson was also the logistician for all the trainings held in the KMC that were conducted on five Army kasernes. This required setting up all equipment.
All eight trainings were held in a two-week period.
“Yes, you could say that Sergeant Vinson was the backbone of these trainings,” said Meghan Roberts, the garrison’s sexual assault response coordinator, who attended the trainings as a subject matter expert.
