Photo By Staff Sgt. Joshua Ford | Staff Sgt. Billy Granado, communications non-commissioned officer, with Headquarters...... read more read more
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Sgt. Joshua R. Ford
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division
CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS BASE SPEICHER, Iraq—It is hard to find time to work out on a deployment between the tedious details that pop up at the last second and the constant patrols necessary for security.
What some Soldiers have started doing is bringing in the gym equipment or in some cases just building it themselves.
Paratroopers with Company C, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, have been building a security station in Bayji, Iraq, for the past three weeks and have lived there since.
Half-way through building the station, the men decided to add a gym. They loaded up all the gym equipment they had back at their home base outside of Bayji and convoyed it out to the station.
The facility is small but it is better than nothing said Pvt. Chad Sebour, an infantryman with Co. C.
Physical fitness is important to every Soldier in the Army, and it is especially important in a combat environment, said Sebour.
"If you do not strive to maintain physical fitness, you will pretty much fall apart out here with the lack of sleep and irregular meals. You'll start to shrink and get really weak," said Spc. Joshua Sullivan, an infantryman with Co. C.
Paratroopers with 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, decided to build their own equipment. They can be found working out with tomato cans, cement, lumber and steel bars in their makeshift gym.
Even though there are two gyms on the base, they said it was a hassle trying to work out in a crowded gym.
Sgt. Robert Lurch, meteorologist, and Staff Sgt. Billy Granado, communications non-commissioned officer, both with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, built an outdoor gym facility so the artillerymen could avoid the over crowded gyms.
The outdoor gym includes pull-up bars, sit-up platforms, dip-bars and weights made with cans and cement.
"We built all of this equipment for convenience," said Lurch. "(Kellogg, Brown and Root Company) provided all the wood and we cut it and made the gym from scratch."
"It is also good for the quick reaction force, since they have to stay in their company area," said Granado.
Deployed Soldiers are constantly carrying a lot of weight on their backs, sometimes more than 100 pounds of equipment. So it is extremely important to stay in the best physical shape you can, said Sullivan.
In the end there is no excuse for not working out. Even if there is no gym where the Soldiers are located, they can always do sit-ups and push-ups, said Sullivan.
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 04.30.2007 10:09 |
| Story ID: | 10175 |
| Location: | TIKRIT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 706 |
| Downloads: | 535 |
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