BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - Airmen here are spending extra time on physical fitness, not for their own personal well-being, but for service members who have sacrificed so much in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Approximately eight airmen from the 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Group Quality Assurance section are taking pledges and doing pushups in order to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project.
The idea stemmed from Tech. Sgt. Daniel Cain, 455th EMXG quality assurance inspector, who was determined to do more than his day-to-day job of providing oversight for the maintenance group in their effort to generate aircraft sorties.
"The quality assurance team regularly volunteers it's time for litter duty at the CASF [Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility] to help Wounded Warriors make their trip back home," said Sgt. Cain, native of El Paso, Texas. "I can remember a young Army private who we helped transfer on his journey home; he had lost both of his legs and part of one arm."
Every day injured soldiers are returning home like the Army private, he continued, and I felt like our team could do more to help them on their journey to recovery.
Sgt. Cain found the information online about the Wounded Warrior Project and began to research what his team could do to support.
"I went online to learn about the Wounded Warrior Project, and then gathered as much information as I could before signing our team up to start raising money," he said. "From there it went out of control and everybody wanted to help however they could."
Every afternoon the group of airmen get together to do as many pushups as they can before the next day arrives. The pushups can't be done alone, but must be with a spotter participating in the fundraiser, or a senior non-commissioned officer to ensure the pushups are done according to the Air Force physical fitness standards.
"It's a good way for us to get together as a team and push ourselves," said Master Sgt. Frank Espinoza, 455 EMXG QA chief inspector, and native of Long Beach, Calif. "It also reminds us of how nice we have it, even though we are deployed to Bagram it keeps things in perspective...we are all sacrificing a little, but the wounded warriors are truly heroes."
The team started doing pushups June 20 and will continue until Aug. 31. The team is tracking their pushups and in the first 15 days has done 21,056 pushups and raised more than $4,669 dollars.
The team expects to reach their goal of $10,000 dollars raised but said it's not just about meeting its goal, but about exceeding the expectations we have for ourselves and, more importantly, raising as much as we can in support of Wounded Warriors.
"I started a little late but when I heard about the effort I wanted to do anything I could to help, and get in great shape in the process," said Senior Airman Jacob Starr, 455 EMXG QA maintenance analyst from Lacey, Wash. "I've got a friend in F-16 scheduling who said I couldn't do more than 20,000 pushups, and if I did, he would triple his donation, so I plan on doing 20,001 pushups before the effort is over."
"People have pledged everything from half a penny a pushup to much higher amounts supporting our effort," said Sgt. Espinoza, deployed from Mountain Home Air Force Base. "We've also reached back to our home stations and anyone we can think of in order to spread the word."
Support has already been pledged by the 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron and from airmen at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, and other locations across the Air Force.
If you would like to contribute to the Wounded Warrior Project through the 455 EMXG, contact Sgt. Cain on e-mail at daniel.cain@bgab.afcent.af.mil. For more information on the Wounded Warrior Project visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org.