DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. — Desert Lightning Team Airmen participated in multiple fitness challenges to conclude D-M AFB’s Comprehensive Airmen Fitness Month, March 31.
The 355th Civil Engineer Squadron’s explosive ordnance disposal and fire emergency service flights hosted the Fire Department Fitness Challenge and the 355th Security Forces Squadron hosted the Defender Challenge.
The separate challenges involved D-M Airmen volunteering in teams of two and racing against the clock to perform a variety of scenarios.
CAF is an Air Force-wide initiative based on improving Airman readiness by solidifying the four pillars of health: mental, physical, social and spiritual. These challenges focused on two pillars: physical and mental.
“The ultimate goal of physical resilience is to show the link of how mental resilience can lead to physical resilience,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Roth, 355th Fighter Wing NCO in charge of community support center. “You must be strong in one skill for others to follow.”
For the Defender Challenge, participants demonstrated strategies such as breaching and clearing shoot-house, recovering a hostage and received time penalties for friendly fire and missed targets.
Participants in the Fire Department Fitness Challenge demonstrated extending fire hose, charging fire hydrant, bunker drill, ladder carry, climbing ladder and stair climb.
The Airmen also removed suspicious packages from a vehicle, performing hand-entry render safe procedure and maneuvering through trip wires in the EOD challenge.
“It’s a chance to see [that] our defenders are more than just that guy checking IDs,” said Tech. Sgt. Cameron Johnson, 355th SFS unit security manager. “For somebody who works in [communications] or medical who doesn’t get to do stuff like this on a regular basis, I think they’ll enjoy it. It’ll give them a lot of insight into the capability of our defenders.”
Approximately 60 Airmen from various career fields participated in the fitness challenges.
“I like that this was just a small glimpse of what these guys actually do in a controlled environment,” said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Steven Farrell, 41st Electronic Combat Squadron EC-130H Compass Call pilot and fitness challenge participant. “It presents a new mentality that we’re all here to be warriors and while you may primarily have a desk job that doesn’t require you to pick up a firearm, this is showing the appreciation for those that are doing that on the front lines.”