Okay. Again, thank you for that question.
Third-line decompression is just a phrase. I've had the good opportunity now to visit every troop rotation going through in my tenure as commander in the last two and a half years. This is something in my mind that's essential for us to do to ensure the better welfare of our people. It's essentially a small capability.
I'll use the example of Cyprus, where we operate now. We will essentially go and operate in a small resort area that allows a range of recreational activities, in addition to ensuring we have an education welfare piece. Troops who are redeploying from the mission will fly to this intermediate place. In this case it's Cyprus. We will then have an in-routine. In essence, they are allowed a period of days in which they are allowed to socialize and participate in recreation. Then they have to take part in some mandatory training. The intent is not to do diagnosis per se. The intent is an education process that is started as we start to do a work-up for operations. It is ensuring that the individual and the families, in the conduit of an operational deployment, have a series of opportunities to ensure that their welfare...and that our understanding and education to them is understood.
The intent of this four-day period is to allow them to decompress and start to change what I call their head space, in terms of where they were. They were in a high-combat, high-intensity environment. Your thought process and reaction are quite different compared to when you move back in and you walk down the streets of your hometown. It's seen as an essential time and space to do that. It also allows for peers to talk to one another. It allows them to understand that they are making that transition back, and to start to recalibrate themselves.
Again, we have found that it has been a very effective tool. Of course, we take sort of “after action” comments from those going through. The vast majority find it to be very beneficial. As enthusiastic they are or as much as they wish to get back to family as soon as possible, I would say the vast majority understand the importance of having that time in terms of decompressing and getting ready for that transition back to home.