Vanderberg Airforce Training

The following account comes from professional photographer and Lifespring graduate Daniel D., who attended a Lifespring Basic Training held for the officers, enlisted personnel, civilian employees, and their families at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California.

When I heard that the Lifespring Foundation would be doing a training for the Air Force, two questions immediately occurred to me. Were military people really interested in personal growth? And what was the Air Force interested in getting from Lifespring? I didn't understand how honesty and accountability would benefit an authoritarian structure.

What I learned was that I had a stereotyped belief about the "military" personality. The people in the training looked, acted, and expressed themselves just like the people in my own Basic. Secondly, I could see that the Lifespring training had a lot to offer the Air Force, particularly in cleaning up a covert resistance to authority which emerged as a central issue during the five days. This surprised me as I assumed that military people were used to taking orders.

When the trainees came in that first evening without uniforms, I certainly couldn't tell the colonels from the sergeants from the civilians. And I still couldn't tell when sharing began, either. In fact, throughout the next two days I was continually surprised when I happened to find out who the high ranking officers were.

One Air Force Colonel told me, "I knew it dealt with self-improvement, but I thought it would be sitting around a table talking. I was really surprised by the intensity of the experience." In a closed-eye process, emotion came pouring out. The darkened room was filled with expressions of anger and pain so strong that I immediately felt adrenalin pumping into my bloodstream. I was stunned by the sudden change and, by now, had shed any preconceptions of a rigid "military" personality.

As the group filed in on Saturday morning, they seemed tense but expectant. The sharing was much deeper, more personal than before. "I realized that I've been doing anything to win all my life. Whatever I have to do to get ahead, I do it, because losers are just no good."

"I'm shaking up here. I didn't want to do this. But I want to overcome fear. Fear runs my life."

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