What Did We Miss? Analysis of Military Personnel Responses to an Open-Ended Question in a Post-Deployment Health Survey

ABSTRACT Introduction Post-deployment health surveys completed by military personnel ask about a range of deployment experiences. These surveys are conducted to determine if there are links between experiences and poor health. Responses to open-ended questions in these surveys can identify experiences that might otherwise go unreported. These responses may increase knowledge about a particular deployment and inform future surveys. This study documented deployment experiences described by Australian Defence Force personnel who were deployed to the Middle East. Materials and Methods A survey completed by 14,032 personnel examined health outcomes and over 100 experiences relating to their Middle East deployment. Responses to two open-ended questions captured additional experiences. Descriptive statistics reveal the characteristics of those who did and did not describe additional experiences, and a content analysis details the nature and frequency of the experiences reported. The study was approved by an Institutional Review Board. Results Five percentage (n = 692) of personnel who completed the survey described additional deployment experiences. The most frequently reported experiences were specific Navy experiences; experiences of poor leadership; administrative or organizational issues; the anthrax vaccine; and traumatic events/potentially morally injurious experiences. Conclusions The findings suggest that post-deployment health surveys should have questions about certain deployment experiences tailored by military service (i.e., Air Force, Army, and Navy). Researchers could consider including questions about personnel experiences of leadership for its impact on health and about potentially morally injurious experiences that may help explain adverse mental health. Clear wording of open-ended questions and participant instructions may improve response rates and reduce response biases.

Land conflict resolution: Case study in Sarirejo Village

This study aims to describe the factors that cause land conflicts between the community and the Air Force in the Indonesian Air Force in Suwondo and the strategies that the community uses in demanding their land rights. The author chose a qualitative approach with the ethnographic method to understand more deeply what is behind an event that took the process, causes and conflict resolution. The results showed that the factor causing the conflict was the claim of each party to the land. Conflict resolution efforts are carried out by the community to obtain land rights through non-litigation advocacy processes and litigation advocacy. The results of these two strategies were able to encourage the government to restore community rights to their land even though it had to go through a long struggle. In July 2020 the government issued a policy to move the Sowondo Base to Langkat Regency.

A study on the improvement of the future branch system

This study aims to suggest an improvement plan for the army branch system considering the development trend of weapon systems through a case analysis of the vision and major weapon systems for each army branch system in R.O.K army. In the future, with the development of science and technology, hyper-connected networks based on artificial satellites would be built, and mosaic warfare, which integrates multiple domains simultaneously, and weapon systems capable of performing all-weather multifunctional battles across land, sea, and air would emerge. As a result, the common areas of the Army, Navy, and Air Force would be expanded, and the division of each army or branch itself would become ambiguous. Hence, it will be inevitable to move away from the branch operation concepts that have been operational until now to seek the concept of jointness or integration. To study this phenomenon, based on the Korean Army Vision 2050 published by the Army, the transition process of the current Army branch system and the cases of vision and major weapon systems for each branch were analyzed. The results of the analysis confirmed that although new advanced complex weapon systems are being developed for each branch, relatively little change has been made to the system. In particular, with the advent of hybrid drones and intelligent autonomous combat robots that can simultaneously perform ‘Surveillance, Reconnaissance - Decision – Strike’, it is expected that the area of expansion and mutual redundancy of combat functions will be further deepened. Therefore, in connection with the development of the weapon system, we will seek a solution to improve the Army branch system in the future and clarify the implications for the Navy and Air Force in the future.

Command-methodological competence of cadets-military pilots as a factor of flight safety

The military professional training of cadets-military pilots in a military aviation university is conditioned by the trends in the development of military education, its prompt response to the personnel needs of the troops. Aviation units need military pilots who are ready to fulfill the official duties of crew commanders, to solve the urgent task of ensuring flight safety. Training of flight personnel for military aviation does not fully take into account the need to form cadets' competencies as an aviation commander and teacher, which will contribute to ensuring flight safety and increasing the combat potential of aviation units and subunits. The article deals with the problem of flight safety as a factor affecting the national security of Russia, paying attention to the causes of accidents and pilot errors. In the course of the study, it was proved that the military-professional activity of cadets-military pilots is the process of solving professional tasks that ensure the combat readiness of aviation units while observing flight safety conditions. Based on the content analysis of the command and methodological professional tasks based on the activity approach, the leading role of the command-methodological activity has been established. The functional approach and the principle of identification made it possible to identify the functions of the leading command-methodological activity (military flight training and educational, organizational and managerial). Arguments are given regarding the development of cadets not only a set of abilities for command-methodological activity, but also professionally important qualities that integrate command-methodological competence. The structure of competence (motivational-value, cognitive, activity components) is determined taking into account the specifics (leading type of activity) and features (a set of command and methodological professional tasks) of military professional activity. The criteria for the formation of the components of the command-methodical competence (professional purposefulness, intellectual potential, professional responsibility) have been identified. The methodological basis of the pedagogical system for the formation of the command-methodical competence of cadets-military pilots was formed by the system-structural, personality-activity, functional, modular, adaptive, technological and competence-based approaches. The results of the experimental work carried out in the branch of Military Educational-Research Centre of Air Force Air Force Academy in Syzran confirmed the dependence of the cadets' readiness for flight safety activities on the formation of command-methodological competence.