Photo By Melissa Buckley | Soldiers and Marines with Company C, 701st Military Police Battalion, lift 30-pound...... read more read more
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Marines training on Fort Leonard Wood to be correctional specialists were given the opportunity to share the Marine Combat Fitness Test with their Soldier classmates, providing opportunities for the two branches to share a bit of friendly competition and bond over the unique experience — exactly what their instructors and drill sergeants were striving for.
Company C of the 701st Military Police Battalion trains the Army’s 31E military occupational specialty — Corrections/Detention Specialists — and the Marine Corps’ 5831 Correctional Specialists, through seven weeks of classes here.
According to 1st Lt. Carlos Paiz, Charlie Company’s executive officer, the Soldier and Marine students have been taking the Army Combat Fitness Test together for years, but this class, leadership decided to organize an early morning opportunity to let the Marines also share their CFT with the class.
“We want to increase the lethality of our Soldiers and Marines. We want to increase their mental toughness and their skills. We want them to be able to operate in any environment and successfully execute any task given to them,” Paiz said. “It is good for them to understand the joint-service environment and learn the tactics, techniques and procedures, and standard operating procedures of the other units.”
The current class is made up of seven Marines and 40 Soldiers.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Corrow, a Charlie Company drill sergeant, said there are usually more Soldiers, but the numbers vary class to class. He said when his Soldiers found out they would be taking the MCFT, “they were very excited and a little nervous.”
“The overall climate of the class was very motivated. There was already a professional rivalry, but I watched it turn into a decent amount of camaraderie after the CFT,” Corrow said.
The ACFT consists of deadlifts, throwing a 10-pound ball backward overhead, hand release push-ups, a sprint-drag-carry, holding a plank for as long as possible and a two-mile run.
The MCFT consists of a running 880 yards, lifting a 30-pound ammunitions can overhead and a maneuver-under-fire simulated event with a timed 300-yard shuttle run, in which Marines are paired up by size and perform the following tasks: sprints, agility course, high crawl, low crawl, body drag, fireman carry, ammo can carry, push-ups and grenade throw.
One of the Marines in the class, Pvt. Francisco Zamora, said he was eager to be able to share the Marine version of a fitness test with the class.
“We gave them the same advice our drill instructors gave us in boot camp: This is going to suck — embrace the suck,” Zamora said, noting he was proud of the effort his Soldier classmates gave. “They ran it really quick. The maneuver-under-fire portion is one of the hardest events and they killed it. It was fun to watch them be good at something they have never tried before.”
Zamora and one of the Soldier students in the unit, Pvt. Michael White, were the top-scoring service members on the Marine Corps test.
White said he was, “excited that the Marines wanted to include us in their combat fitness test. Me and my battle buddies were eager to try to beat them at their own test.”
Conquering the MCFT, “is a memory I will carry with me the rest of the career,” White added.
According to Paiz, it is important for the students to learn early on in their careers to work seamlessly with members of other branches.
“Our military must understand our future conflict. We are going to have to work with all services in a multi-domain operational environment with large-scale combat operations. We have to understand the capabilities of every force, so we can integrate with them,” Paiz said. “This is a step forward in that direction. We train with (the other services) every day, but we need to be able to do everything they do, and they need to be able to do everything we do. We are part of the Military Police Corps — of the whole armed forces.”
Paiz said he hopes to be able to continue offering the MCFT to students and incorporate more Marine Corps-specific training into the course in the future.
“Currently, the Soldiers train on the M17 pistol, and they qualify separately from the Marines. One of the things we want to explore for the next year is incorporating the Marines into training at our M17 range, then potentially having our Soldiers shoot with the Marines, as well,” Paiz said. “Since we do all of the program of instruction training requirements to become a corrections specialist together, we would like to integrate the physical fitness and marksmanship.”
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.22.2023 11:37 |
| Story ID: | 458438 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 110 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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