Health Promotion and Annual Training Prevention Workshop
ATLANTA, April 27, 2010 – Georgia Air Guard Lt. Col. Mike Rumsey of Warner Robbins’ 116th Air Control Wing takes notes while Lt. Col. Valerie Dunham from Savannah’s 165th Airlift Wing listens to remarks by subject matter experts at this year’s National Guard Health Promotion and Annual Training Prevention Workshop. Rumsey and Dunham are their unit’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) coordinators. Seated behind them is Amy Steven’s the Georgia National Guard’s psychological health director. The trio is among the more than 400 Citizen-Soldiers, Airmen and civilians from seven regions across the nation and five different programs attending the four-day conference at Buck Head’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. According to conference coordinators, the event’s theme is “Become a National Guard “P.R.O.” or Prevention, Response and Outreach. Doing so, “indicates that we are all individuals who care deeply about each other, and about helping our fellow service members, and family members” with issues regarding sexual harassment and sexual assault and substance abuse. Also among the Georgians attending the workshop are Lt. Col. Cheryl Hendrix, the Army Guard’s SART coordinator; Lt. Col. Ben Sartain, who commands the Georgia Guard’s Counter-drug Task Force and several Soldiers and Airmen assigned to that unit. Putting in an appearance at the conference are Georgia Army Guard Maj. Gen. Larry H. Ross, director of Manpower and Personnel at National Guard Bureau in Washington; Maj. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General, and Col. Jay Peno, the Georgia Guard’s director of human resources. (Georgia National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Roy Henry)