Courtesy Photo | Staff Sgt. Korinne Israel ran her first ever marathon last October in Des Moines,...... read more read more
Korinne Israel ran her first ever marathon last October in Des Moines, which qualified her for the 2024 Boston Marathon. Then, wearing number 12936, Israel completed the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:42:27 on April 15, 2024.
[The 2024 Boston Marathon’s qualification time for women aged 35-39 is 3 hours, 35 minutes, 0 seconds; but the race instituted a ‘cut-off’ time of 5:29 below the respective qualifying standard in order to be accepted, limiting the number of qualifiers to 30,000. Participants must complete the Boston Marathon within six hours].
“People would describe me as a competitive person. And so in that sense, I like competing with myself and challenging myself,” said Israel.
A Davenport, Iowa, native, Israel grew up playing sports and Division III basketball at Maranatha University in Watertown, Wisconsin, but marathoning was not in her track record despite being a trainer at Kosama Davenport gym and co-leading the gym’s running club in local 5K races and half marathons.
“One of the other trainers told me, ‘You know, you should do a marathon.’ I had thought about it in the past, and actually started training for one way back in my 20s until I got a stress fracture in my foot just because I wasn’t wearing the right shoes and taking care of myself.”
But motivation from other trainers and running club members kept pushing until her competitive edge led her to “take out that challenge too.”
Israel, a Davenport Fire Department firefighter and an Army Reserve combat medic staff sergeant assigned to the 345 Ground Ambulance Company in Fort Des Moines, knows the impact of motivation from your teammates.
“One thing that I've really tried to be aware of is the fact that I love physical fitness but not everyone has the same passion that I do. So recognizing that we're in the military, and there is a standard to maintain, I will always push myself to exceed that standard because I just enjoy it and I want to push myself, but I always want to be a positive role model and example for other people watching me to know this is achievable, and they can do this too,” said Israel.
Israel may not have been training for marathons throughout her life, but she has been focused on health, physical fitness, and service to community.
“When I was in high school, I had the desire to serve and thought the military was a cool thing, just being patriotic, and in a sense, it felt a little bit like a call to duty,” said Israel.
She decided to go to college to study Exercise Science with an emphasis in physical education and health but came back to the desire to serve in the military, looking at Army Reserve career paths stemming from her education.
“As soon as I graduated, I knew I wanted to do the military thing. I enlisted in December after completing my student teaching requirement, walked for my graduation in May, and then left about five days later for basic training as an 88M (motor transport operator),” she said.
While Israel wasn’t set on a specific career path as an 88M, “It was one of those things – I just wanted to be in the military. This was the MOS they suggested and I was like, ‘let's do it,’” she said.
When she returned from Basic Training, Israel worked at a gym as a trainer, eventually managing the gym.
In December 2015, Israel completed her EMT certification and knew she had found her career field and wanted more than just the basic level EMT skills. She immediately began the University of Iowa's paramedic program.
“There were some instructors that were paramedics who had worked in the fire service, including my EMT instructor. I had thought about being a firefighter, even when I was in high school, but I didn't have anyone that I knew, or could relate to. I didn't know how to go about becoming a firefighter. So it was, ‘that'd be cool, but I have no idea how to do that,’” Israel stated.
Israel completed her paramedic school in the fall of 2016 and decided her ultimate goal was to be a firefighter. She started working for Medic Ambulance as a full time paramedic while applying to different fire departments. Davenport Fire Department called in May 2017, and her first official day was a month later.
Israel also decided she was ready for a change in her military career.
She explained, “I love [firefighting] as my civilian career. But I decided being a combat medic aligned more with what I wanted to do in general,” and she reclassed to become a combat medic in March 2020. “I felt that I challenged myself more in broadening my medical knowledge by being a combat medic than by being a firefighter in the military,” she said.
“What I do, while the medical skills do relate in some ways, is like being a combat medic. I realized how much I love that medical aspect of just being a paramedic. Even just the way that you get to, potentially in a combat situation, take care of people is a new and challenging way [compared] to the regular emergency response on the civilian side,” said Israel.
The Davenport Fire department doesn’t have an ambulance attached to their unit, but they still respond to all medical calls. “I am a firefighter first and foremost, but my paramedic certification holds just as much weight there as it would anywhere else. If we arrive at an emergency before the ambulance, we’re taking care of that patient and helping package them up onto the ambulance. But if we also get a call for a structure fire then I'm gearing up and going in and fighting fires as well,” she explained.
Israel was recently promoted in the fire department to the rank of engineer, taking on the role of driving either the fire engine or firetruck and then operating the pump or the ladder at a fire scene.
She also recognizes the back and forth of military and civilian skills influencing one another.
“Once you’ve driven the ambulance, it’s not as intimidating,” she said. “It’s also funny how I look back and think that 88M wasn’t everything that I wanted it to be in my military career…driving a fire truck isn’t exactly the same thing as driving a PLS… but it's helped me out in a lot of ways in different things that I've done in my civilian career.”
Israel also serves as an instructor for her department’s fire academy.
“Having gone to college for education has helped me in a way, translating over to my civilian and Army careers as an instructor. I think with mass shootings being what they are today and us preparing on the fire and EMS side of things, having the knowledge of combat-based medicine from the military, has definitely translated to my civilian career,” Israel said.
As an instructor and platoon sergeant, which only stood up two years ago, she has 50 Soldiers in her unit, 33 of them combat medics, looking at her for mentorship and guidance on both the civilian and military career fronts. And more are looking for fitness motivation.
“I tell people, ‘Don't just shoot for the minimums, so that you will always meet and exceed expectations.’ That doesn't mean you’ve got to be a 600 on your ACFT, but it means that you can be better than that 70%. I recognize other people may not love physical fitness as much as I do, but hopefully they see that they can push themselves a little bit to get there,” she said.
With the Boston Marathon behind her, Israel is focused on getting her unit ready for Global Medic, a grueling training exercise at Fort Hunter Liggett, California, in June.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2024 18:40 |
| Story ID: | 468786 |
| Location: | SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, US |
| Hometown: | DAVENPORT, IOWA, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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