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Concern over mental health and well-being is acute, particularly following stressful pandemic times, marked by social disconnection and loneliness. At risk is one’s sense of social belonging, a fundamental human need critical to human survival. We echo Holt-Lunstad’s (2022) call for prioritizing social factors when addressing public health during and in recovery from the pandemic, arguing that workplace supervisors and leaders can play an important role. As a workplace context, the military is especially focused on social relationships as service member employees face extreme health and safety challenges, not unlike other high risk first responder occupations. This study evaluated the efficacy of an evidence-based supportive-leadership training intervention targeting active-duty US Army platoon leaders. The goal of the training was to increase service members’ social connectedness through leaders providing social support for psychological health and resilience, thereby decreasing loneliness. One hundred-four platoon leaders completed the 90-minute training that consisted of both in-person and computer-based components. Intervention effects were tested using an intent-to-treat approach and revealed a significant effect, whereby loneliness for service members who were randomized to the intervention group (N= 118) was significantly reduced compared to loneliness reports for service members in the control group (N= 158). Service members with higher baseline loneliness were more strongly and positively impacted by the supervisor training, reporting higher levels of emotional support and stigma-reduction behaviors from their leaders at …