Challenge tests endurance, strength and teamwork

  • Published
  • By Jonathan Rejent
  • Nucleus staff writer
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Day in and day out, a military members physical and mental fitness is constructed, confronted and challenged.

The 21st Ordnance Company, a subordinate unit of the Army's 20th Support Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., hosted a three-day team competition May 20-22 at Kirtland to put that fitness to the test.

In addition, the event brought awareness to the Wounded Warrior program.

"It can be hard to get motivation to train without a real goal in mind -- we're doing this competition to give them something to work toward," said Army 1st Lt. James Akins, 21st EOD.

Akins, who organized the event, brought up the idea of doing the competition with the four platoon leaderships at the 21st EOD in January. During the months leading up to first company challenge, suggestions were tossed around, challenges were added, a point system was created, and the decision to turn the event into a two-man team competition was made.

"Rather than focus on a single strength, we wanted (the competition) to be a total-body fitness," Akins said.

The intention was for the challenges to be well-rounded so competitors would choose teammates who had differing strengths from their own. Endurance events, such as running and swimming, were balanced out with strength events, such as deadlifts and sledge swings.

"The bigger guys may not be able to maintain 8-minute miles for five miles, but they can flip a tire," Akins said.

To get an idea of the intensity of the challenges competitors faced, Akins broke down one of the timed events: "The team must flip a tire 200 meters, do 50 pull ups between the two of them, hit the tire 100 times with a sledge hammer between the two of them, do 50 dips, 30 handstand pushups, an ab workout on a pull-up bar, and finish with a half-mile run."

Events like this, he said, were designed to wear out competitors for following events where teams had the opportunity to gain a much larger amount of points.

Akins said he may need to fine tune the point system and would like to further involve the Wounded Warrior program in years to come, but is overall satisfied with the way this year's challenge turned out.

Five teams competed in the challenge. The first place team consisted of Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Delfino and Spc. Jeremy Dean.