KILLEEN, Texas 一 Fort Hood officials announced the start of the Supporting Warriors Action Team (SWAT) program in March amid the ongoing Operation People First Campaign.
It comes after the murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillen last year shed light on deeper issues at Fort Hood.
With an emphasis on putting people first, SWAT was created to change the command climate and culture at Fort Hood. The more visual part of the two-day program features soldiers acting out scenes in three different rooms.
One scenario shows a woman giving Sgt. Braxton Moore a large quantity of alcohol with the goal of sexually assaulting him. While scenarios like this do happen, during this training, soldiers like Moore are only acting.
"From personal experience, when stuff like this starts to happen around you, it can be really overwhelming and you want to freeze because you're like ‘This can't be real,’” Moore said.
However, instead of freezing, the SWAT course is supposed to give soldiers the tools they need to respond, according to Sexual Assault Response Coordinator SFC Naytasha Robins.
"We try to get them to see what wrong looks like, so when it is time for them to intervene and act, that way they know what they're supposed to do,” Robins said. “And it's not one of those things of ‘Hey let me think about this.’ It’s second nature.”
SFC Titi Layo Hampton, with the 89th Military Police Brigade, recently took the course.
"It deals with sexual assault, sexual harassment, equal opportunity, master resilience training and just whatever the soldier may need in order to be successful,” Hampton explained.
Moore is grateful for the chance to lend a helping hand.
"I've seen what these types of situations can do long term to people and if I can be a part of a solution to make that not happen, then I'm in the right place,” Moore said.
