The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) Academy delivers leadership development. An important dimension of experience sharing has been the significance of the relationship between action, thoughts and emotions (Bruner, 1986). Since the 2000’s the Academy has instigated the practice of the cadets writing term papers about their own operational experiences in order to demonstrate knowledge of stress and coping processes. Many of the descriptions were of a very important operational and safety nature and an important question emerged. Are these experiences shared at debrief in their natural operational environments? Having kept this question relevant through many graduating classes, recognition emerged that many individual, critical operational experiences were never shared in the operational communities. The difference between what emerged in classroom discussions and written work and what seems to be difficult to share in operational settings is partly the focus of my research. Building on these experiences of sharing operational experiences at the RNoAF Academy in 2005 we started a course as part of the RNoAF Academy Advanced Level courses consisting of 8 experienced operational military Air Force pilots. The purpose was to create a reflection arena where operational experiences and knowledge were shared for the purpose of common learning and development. Within a few days, this group reported a safe and trusting unit where one could willingly share one’s own experiences and thoughts from operational experiences. The cohesion in the group developed into an atmosphere of great space for each other that established an openness, which was both critical and compassionate. Emotions were exposed and experiences that had been held back for many years were shared with the others in the group and documented in Moldjord et al. (2010) and Firing & Moldjord (2007). Among other things, cadets showed that they gained new knowledge and understanding of the feelings and bodily reactions that may occur in critical situations in the cockpit. A new debriefing practice in the RNoAF – the Holistic Debrief which will be presented and elaborated in the presentation.