Photo By Staff Sgt. Oriana White | Staff Sgt. Tyler Lundquist, a combat medic with the Pennsylvania National Guard’s...... read more read more
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. –Staff Sgt. Tyler Lundquist, a combat medic with the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Medical Battalion Training Site, says he didn’t run much growing up. However, when the laid-back medic picked up running as a pandemic hobby, he quickly discovered it was something he excelled at.
Prior to 2020, 29-year-old Lundquist mainly focused on weight training, but when the COVID-19 virus swept over the country and gyms closed their doors indefinitely in March of 2020, Lundquist knew he needed to find an alternative way to stay fit.
“I started running every day, putting in miles and dropping weight,” said Lundquist. “I ran a little bit in high school and I was pretty fast, but before this past year I’d never committed myself to long-distance running. Eight miles was the most I’d ever ran before this past year.”
Within a few months, Lundquist ran a local marathon in under 2 hours and 53 seconds, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I contacted the Pennsylvania National Guard Marathon Team coordinator, 1st Lt. Daniel Kysela,” Lundquist said. “He invited me to go run a qualifier marathon in Lincoln, Nebraska, to try out for the National All-Guard Marathon Team. I qualified, so now I can run up to three marathons a year with the team.”
Impressively, Lundquist placed 4th in the male guardsman category out of approximately 200 guardsmen.
In addition to running competitively at the national level, Lundquist spends his time working toward his undergraduate degree while using his medical training to support vaccination efforts across the commonwealth through his role in the National Guard.
With over a decade of medical experience under his belt, Lundquist has plenty of experience providing medical care to fellow Soldiers. Although he never expected that he would be administering vaccines to civilian when he first joined the military, Lundquist says he adjusted quickly to his new role.
“Initially it was weird administering COVID vaccines to civilians,” he said. “I think they were in awe of the fact that a Soldier was giving them a shot. They’d ask me if I was qualified to do this, because they think of Soldiers as only knowing how to shoot guns. I’d tell them that we actually have lots of different skills in the Army!”
Most recently, Lundquist took a brief hiatus from the COVID-19 vaccination mission to attend Air Assault School, a notoriously difficult course that qualifies Soldiers to conduct air assault helicopter operations; including aircraft orientation, sling load operations, and proper rappelling techniques. The school is known as the 10 toughest days in the United States Army, and the failure rate is approximately 55%. Lundquist said he wasn’t sure what to expect.
“Air Assault School was more academic than I thought it would be,” he said. “You actually need to study, and I think it catches people off guard. They think ‘Oh, I’m in great shape, I’m going to cruise through Air Assault School,’ but you have to be able to retain information.”
According to Lundquist, missing small details and not studying the material were the biggest reasons so many Soldiers failed out of his class.
“Around 240 people began Air Assault School, and by the end we only graduated with about 140 Soldiers,” said Lundquist.
Even after graduating Air Assault School and qualifying for the All-Guard National Marathon team within the space of a year, Lundquist says he has no plans of slowing down and is looking forward to tackling many more marathons in the future.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2021 14:35 |
| Story ID: | 401677 |
| Location: | ANNVILLE, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 296 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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