Photo By Spc. Tyrell Boyd | Second Lt. Zachary Johnson, a military police officer with the 401st MP Co., mentally...... read more read more
By 1st Lt. Charles Sample, 720th Military Police Battalion
FORT HOOD, Texas - The 720th Military Police Battalion held its quarterly battalion fitness competition Nov. 21 in order to increase esprit de corps and assess the strongest Soldiers of the Gauntlet.
The Fort Hood Fire Department hosted the event, in coordination with the Fort Hood Department of Emergency Services and the 720th MP Battalion. Each company and detachment provided a two-Soldier team that competed in the rigorous event.
The teams ran through a modified Firefighter Combat Challenge Course, notoriously named the toughest two minutes in sports.
“The course was intense,” said Capt. Stephen Ruff, who serves as the commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 720th MP Battalion. “It did not look that bad watching it, but once it was your turn, you felt the pain.”
The Firefighter Combat Challenge Course started with each Soldier donning a firefighter jacket, air tank and helmet. Each team then had to carry a 45-pound hose up five flights of stairs followed by hoisting another 45-pound hose, connected by rope, to the top of the building.
The Soldiers then ran back down the flights of stairs to a sled, where they then had to use a sledgehammer to get the weight from one side of the sled to the other. After completing the sledgehammer event, the Soldiers sprinted 50 meters around simulated fire hydrants to a fire hose they had to stretch out back through the 50 meters of simulated fire hydrants. The course finished with the Soldiers dragging a 175 pound mannequin 40 meters.
“By the time you get to the ‘mannequin drag,’ you are absolutely spent,” Ruff said. “It is a major gut check, because by that time you are extremely tired, and it takes all of your mental and physical will to ignore the pain and finish the challenge.”
The Soldier teams were timed individually and their times were combined with their teammates to decide the overall winner in the competition.
“It was great seeing the units supporting their Soldiers,” Ruff said. “As a competitor, that motivation really pushes you to work harder.”
The 411th Military Police Company’s team prevailed as champions of the Second Quarter 720 MP Battalion Fitness Competition with individual times of 2 minutes and 24 seconds and 2 minutes and 28 seconds, with a team combined 4 minutes 52 second time.
“It was amazing. We should compete in these more often,” Ruff said. “The feeling of representing your unit is rewarding enough.”
| Date Taken: | 11.21.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 12.11.2014 10:26 |
| Story ID: | 150062 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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