How have the Marines in the pilot program used their training in combat, thus far?
A. The pilot group of Marines was in Iraq working with another Marine unit that hadn’t received the training and a group of Iraqi counterparts. One of the Iraqi soldiers was actually an insurgent, and he turned on the Americans, and killed some of them — including the captain. It was incredibly traumatic for them to watch the leader’s remains being carried by. One of the Marines I trained saw another Marine struggling to light a cigarette because his hands were shaking so badly. The first marine recognized that as a sign of the parasympathetic nervous system resetting itself and knew his colleague needed help. He walked the other Marine through a couple of the exercises we did in MMFT. Later that night, the first Marine went to check on the other, who said he felt noticeably calmer. That’s one place where MMFT was very mission-critical. Q. The military community is still coming to grips with the mass killing at Ft. Hood. Could a program such as MMFT help? A. Culturally there has been
