Robins’ Wingman Saves Program is giving Airmen the skills and confidence to step in and make a difference when they see others in potentially harmful situations both on- and off-duty.

The program grew out of the Air Force’s Wingman Intervention Program. Robins took the initiative a step further, designing its own Wingman Saves coin that commanders, directors and first sergeants may present to individuals for their intervention efforts.

Stuart Bapties, Violence Prevention specialist and Suicide Prevention Program manager for the Robins Integrated Resilience Program Office, said the program, a concerted effort by the Air Force Materiel Command, recognizes and encourages people to help people.

“The goal of the Wingman Intervention program is to turn those situations — where personnel recognized at-risk behavior and proactively intervened — into teachable moments and to encourage similar behavior in others,” he said.

In addition to Airmen, spouses and family members may also be recognized and coined for helping each other out, by having key spouses identify those family members to either the unit commander or directly to the Violence Prevention integrator at [email protected], Bapties said.

“It helps enable us to gauge our efforts of encouraging Airmen to reach out to their fellow Airmen and ask for help, as well as, providing Airmen the tools to recognize the warning signs and help Airmen deal with those issues,” Bapties said.    

Nominations are made utilizing a “Wingman Saves Form” that lists the nature of the intervention and the form is then sent to the Violence Prevention Integrator to be able to share good news stories. The nomination forms have no information on them that identifies either the person being helped or the person providing the intervention.