Six ‘Warrior Medics’ excel in, graduate from H2F-I course

Army Reserve Medical Command:

"PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Fourteen U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers throughout the Army Reserve medical enterprise, six of whom are assigned to the Army Reserve Medical Command headquarters here, took part in and graduated from the Holistic Health and Fitness- Integrator, or H2F-I, course held at the C.W. Bill Young Armed Forces Reserve Center here, Oct. 18-30, 2026.

U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class David Terrell, an H2F-I instructor for the recent course and from the Fort Dix Noncommissioned Officer Academy at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, said the primary is to train and certify Soldiers on how to implement the H2F program and their knowledge and skills into their respective unit levels - with profound emphasis on the physical, mental, nutritional, spiritual and sleep domains.

“This course is the cornerstone of the Army Reserve's strategy to operationalize H2F at the unit level,” said Terrell. “By embedding these trained integrators, the course directly supports the creation of a healthier, more resilient, and combat-ready force. Graduates become force multipliers within their formations.”

Terrell said the course curriculum included resistance and weight-lifting training techniques, running technique and analysis, plyometrics, speed and agility training, a Modified Tactical Athletic Performance-Assessment, peer-to-peer workouts and coaching observations, a Combat Focused Assessment and unit command briefs that served as the capstone presentations and the culminating event prior to graduation.

U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Yury Lopez, future operations NCOIC for AR-MEDCOM, said a crucial function of H2F-Is are to serve as direct advisors and subject matter experts to commanders to ensure programs are apropos to the unit mission and specifications.

“The cool thing about the H2F program is that it’s not like any other program that one size fits all; this one must be unique,” Lopez said. “We need to do a commander’s need analysis, so that way as an H2F-I, we can tailor that for that commander and that mission.”

Lopez also said she and her fellow students learned that when any one of the five domains are negatively impacted in any shape or form, the other domains will unfortunately follow suit and compromise both the physical and mental capacity of Soldiers.

“All of the components work together to make the Soldier,” Lopez said. “We’re trying to implement a more Army holistic approach to make Soldiers stronger, not only physically, but mentally as well.”

U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Scott Suttles, the clinical operations officer of the Columbus, Ohio-based 307th Medical Brigade, 807th Theater Medical Command, said his primary motive in attaining H2F-I certification is to become more empowered in affecting and influencing positive outcomes at both the unit and individual Soldier level.

“A lot of these units don’t have the opportunity to have someone at the squad level, at the company level, to be able to have those resources that can point the Soldiers in the right directions,” said Suttles. “I think many times, Soldiers just don’t know where to start. The H2F-I is paramount in being able to point these Soldiers in the right direction, to give them the tools necessary to affect those changes.”

Regarding a key takeaway from the course, Suttles said that fitness does not need to be difficult - consistency is the key to success and maintenance.

U.S. Army Reserve Capt. Robert Fields, the Clinops Oic of the 307th Med Bde, said teamwork is a key component to the success and maintenance pertaining to Soldier fitness performance and aptitude.

“I think the Combat (Focused) Assessment that we did is really important because they took teams based off of our fitness levels and put them together, and they had some strengths and some weaknesses, which you’re going to encounter if you go downrange and you get deployed,” said Fields.

The CFA prompted us to work together as a team and help each other in overcoming over limitations and weaknesses to achieve our goals, said Fields.

Fields also said that improvement across all five domains is not an instantaneous, but a gradual, ascent to comprehensive readiness.

“One little piece, one percent better each day; you have that up over time, and that’s really going to significantly improve your readiness overall, and I think that’s what H2F is after is getting a little better each day in all those domains,” said Fields.

Regarding the Army Reserve-wide integration of the H2F program, AR-MEDCOM has a significant stake in the process.

U.S. Army Reserve Capt. Joseph Asselin, AR-MEDCOM H2F System Manager, said Ar- Medcom is the chief proponent to spearhead the systems implementation of the H2F among all geographical and functional commands within the U.S. Army Reserve footprint.

“AR-MEDCOM will be implementing all of the training for H2F, and the readiness divisions will also have their H2F programs, but AR-MEDCOM will be pretty much facilitating all of the implementation of it,” Asselin said. “We’ll be writing all of the orders and the doctrine, and everything that is involved in H2F.”

By harnessing the tactical and technical acumen of the H2F-Is with a vast array of technological mediums and resources, the H2F program is an integral aspect in the transformation and modernization of the Total Army’s core competencies - ensuring combat-ready and readiness-driven formations to support large-scale combat operations and large-scale mobilization operations.

“If anyone is interested in learning about how they can make their formations healthier, stronger, more resilient, that they need to get in contact with their chain of command and seek this course out,” said Suttles."