This presentation will explore the central hypothesis of an ethnographic study examining how U.S. Air Force Special Operations Surgical Teams (SOSTs) build and sustain resilience against catastrophic injury exposure. Moving beyond conventional trauma-based resilience frameworks, unconventional resilience is defined as a dynamic, relational, adaptive, and ongoing process embedded within the practical performance of SOST medics. This study began with the hypothesis that communal grief processes would support resilience after catastrophic injury exposure. Data analysis aimed to identify connections between grief processing and resilience. The emergent design helped develop a set of five social determinants that structure and orient unconventional resilience at the tactical level.
Findings presented today will establish that grief processing— an often-rejected experience—functions as the cornerstone of unconventional resilience. It is not a deficit to manage but a transformative rite of passage to engage. When the SOST organization and its teams embraced grief processing as a socially mediated behavior, unconventional resilience was expressed through exploring death stacking. Grief was metabolized through communal practices. Thus, constructive grief processing fosters a pliant palliative posture that enables conscientious concern for others, clarifies priorities, and galvanizes moral resolve. It also functions as an effective pivot that aligns the SOST medic’s humanity with the fragility inherent in every mission.