1 00:00:01,529 --> 00:00:03,307 A lot of us suffer in silence . 2 00:00:05,750 --> 00:00:07,861 I'm technical Sergeant Nigel Cotton . 3 00:00:07,861 --> 00:00:09,806 I'm a military training instructor 4 00:00:09,806 --> 00:00:11,861 trainer at the 3 26 train squadron . 5 00:00:12,239 --> 00:00:15,140 Initially , whenever I first got here , 6 00:00:15,149 --> 00:00:18,420 I felt myself overwhelmed , like super 7 00:00:18,430 --> 00:00:21,549 overwhelmed . A lot of times all of us 8 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,709 were selected because we were top notch 9 00:00:24,719 --> 00:00:28,409 on our job . Um And we wanna come here 10 00:00:28,420 --> 00:00:30,642 and we wanna be top notch as well , but 11 00:00:30,642 --> 00:00:32,809 we're working with all these other top 12 00:00:32,809 --> 00:00:35,031 notch individuals . So I don't wanna be 13 00:00:35,031 --> 00:00:37,198 the guy that falls behind and I'm kind 14 00:00:37,198 --> 00:00:39,364 of stressed out . I don't feel like um 15 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:41,590 I don't feel like I'm where I need to 16 00:00:41,590 --> 00:00:44,340 be in the training environment . 17 00:00:44,349 --> 00:00:46,770 There's so much emphasis and gear 18 00:00:46,779 --> 00:00:48,779 towards what do the trainees or the 19 00:00:48,779 --> 00:00:51,369 tech school students need ? We also 20 00:00:51,380 --> 00:00:53,436 equally need to look at , you know , 21 00:00:53,436 --> 00:00:55,547 what are our cadre or permanent party 22 00:00:55,547 --> 00:00:57,658 or staff ? What do they need in order 23 00:00:57,658 --> 00:00:59,658 to thrive in this environment as as 24 00:00:59,658 --> 00:01:03,150 well . Our office is responsible for 25 00:01:03,159 --> 00:01:04,992 taking care of military training 26 00:01:04,992 --> 00:01:07,215 instructors . There's about 650 of them 27 00:01:07,215 --> 00:01:09,760 here and we are responsible for looking 28 00:01:09,769 --> 00:01:11,919 out for their mental health , doing 29 00:01:11,930 --> 00:01:13,930 assessment and selection and really 30 00:01:13,930 --> 00:01:15,930 just making sure that they're being 31 00:01:15,930 --> 00:01:17,930 taken care of in the clinic , we're 32 00:01:17,930 --> 00:01:20,097 dealing with people and we're treating 33 00:01:20,097 --> 00:01:22,152 people and taking care of people who 34 00:01:22,152 --> 00:01:24,208 are already in a suffering place who 35 00:01:24,208 --> 00:01:26,374 are already in a place where they need 36 00:01:26,374 --> 00:01:28,430 help and are hurting here . I get to 37 00:01:28,430 --> 00:01:31,550 try and prevent the hurting MC TS . 38 00:01:31,940 --> 00:01:34,330 They do a annual evaluation just to 39 00:01:34,339 --> 00:01:36,470 make sure that we're still good . And 40 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,313 if there is something that we're 41 00:01:38,313 --> 00:01:40,480 talking about , would you like to have 42 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,758 that conversation when I first laid it ? 43 00:01:42,758 --> 00:01:44,869 I was , I was pretty honest because I 44 00:01:44,869 --> 00:01:46,924 was all stressed out . I had no idea 45 00:01:46,924 --> 00:01:48,702 what I was doing and I remember 46 00:01:48,702 --> 00:01:50,758 specifically uh major , oh , she was 47 00:01:50,758 --> 00:01:52,647 like , don't , you know , you are 48 00:01:52,647 --> 00:01:54,869 exactly where you need to be , somebody 49 00:01:54,869 --> 00:01:56,924 selected you and really kind of just 50 00:01:56,924 --> 00:01:59,258 help bolster my confidence a little bit , 51 00:01:59,258 --> 00:02:01,369 but providing support directly to the 52 00:02:01,369 --> 00:02:03,258 MTIS uh teaching them things like 53 00:02:03,258 --> 00:02:05,369 sports , psychology , how to manage , 54 00:02:05,369 --> 00:02:07,536 you know , energy flow in yourself and 55 00:02:07,536 --> 00:02:09,595 in the trainees , that's important 56 00:02:09,794 --> 00:02:12,044 because even though we're providing 57 00:02:12,054 --> 00:02:14,175 that information to the MT I , uh 58 00:02:14,184 --> 00:02:17,175 they're now influencing how those 59 00:02:17,184 --> 00:02:21,130 trainees are being trained recently , 60 00:02:21,139 --> 00:02:24,429 my wife was talking about how vastly 61 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:26,496 different it was from one of our , I 62 00:02:26,496 --> 00:02:28,607 first got here versus to where I'm at 63 00:02:28,607 --> 00:02:30,940 today . And a lot of that is experience , 64 00:02:30,940 --> 00:02:32,829 but also a lot of that is just by 65 00:02:32,829 --> 00:02:34,718 talking to uh the people here and 66 00:02:34,718 --> 00:02:36,960 helping figure out how to manage this 67 00:02:36,970 --> 00:02:38,914 because if not , I don't know if I 68 00:02:38,914 --> 00:02:41,137 would have been able to figure that out 69 00:02:41,137 --> 00:02:43,303 on my own . Truly , it's inspirational 70 00:02:43,303 --> 00:02:45,414 to come to work every day , to get to 71 00:02:45,414 --> 00:02:47,637 be out and walk among them and see what 72 00:02:47,637 --> 00:02:49,692 they do and be a part of it and have 73 00:02:49,692 --> 00:02:51,803 them trust me . Like , I think that's 74 00:02:51,803 --> 00:02:51,729 the difference of what we do here with 75 00:02:51,740 --> 00:02:54,399 human performances . Our money is where 76 00:02:54,410 --> 00:02:56,949 our mouth is and we spend time getting 77 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:58,279 after things in a meaningful way .