Spartans show they have what it takes for Marine test

by Sgt. Eric-James Estrada
4/25th IBCT Public Affairs

8/29/2014 - CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan -- Arctic warriors were given an opportunity to experience Marine combat training while participating in Exercise Ulchi-Freedom Guardian 2014, an annual joint/combined command post exercise designed to enhance the Republic of Korea's defensive capabilities in the face of an aggressor threat.

Paratroopers with the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, along with Airmen of the 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron assigned to the Spartan Brigade, home-stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, participated in the Marine Corps' Combat Fitness Test to build esprit de corps and learn more about the Marines' training requirements.

"Since we're here at Camp Hansen and Camp Courtney conducting the UFG exercise and we're doing joint operations with the Marine Corps, we thought it would be a great way to understand some of the Marine mentality," said Army Maj. David Nelson, operations officer for the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry Regiment.

The CFT is taken once a year and includes a sequence of physical exercises that evaluates a Marine's ability to perform several combat-related activities. The CFT was designed to complement the Physical Fitness Test in order to provide insight into a Marine's overall fitness level.

Before the inception of the CFT in 2008, Marines took the PFT once every six months. The Marine Corps then changed it up a bit, shifting more towards a combat fitness-type test.
Since 2008, between January and June, the Marines run a PFT, which consists of pullups, crunches and a three-mile run for males. For females it consists of a flexed arm hang, crunches and a 3-mile run. Between June and December a CFT is conducted.

"I think it's excellent. Running three miles, doing 20 pull-ups, doing 100 crunches, becomes normal," said Gunnery Sgt. Pete O'Brien, the company gunnery sergeant for Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, who also facilitated the CFT for the arctic warriors.

"This mixed it up and now there's a whole bunch of things we have to start working on," said O'Brien, a Boston native. "You have to work on your combat conditioning, your flexibility, your upper body strength and things like that."

The CFT consists of three events:

• An 880-yard "movement to contact" run in boots and utility pants.
• Two minutes of lifting a 30-pound ammo can over the head, earning two points for each number done in the time limit.
• A "maneuver under fire" drill, which is part obstacle course, part conditioning and part combat test, and consists of the following:
• 10-yard sprint
• 15-yard crawl (low then high crawl)
• Hauling a simulated casualty using two different carries - drag and fireman's carry - over 75 yards while zig-zagging through cones
• Sprint while carrying two 30-pound ammo cans over 75 yards through the same cones
• Throwing a dummy hand grenade into a marked circle 22.5 yards away (five seconds added to total time if missed)
• Three pushups and a sprint with the ammo cans to the finish line.

"It's a pretty good assessment," said Army 1st Lt. Jonathan Razack, a Dallas native assigned to the 1-501st Infantry.

Razack compared the event to the Army's Ranger Physical Assessment Test, noting the similarities of running in boots and field uniform with body armor on.

"I definitely think it's a good measure of combat fitness and it's something a little different," Razack said. "It's good for team building."

"Learning to see how [the Marines] train and actually [execute] the training are great lessons learned and maybe we can take some of this training and incorporate it with our own units," Razack added.

O'Brien said the scores were right on par with the Marines. Noting that like everything else in a unit, there are high scores and then there are scores that indicate areas for improvement.

"I think they are doing pretty good," O'Brien said. "If you took these scores and put them next to a Marine's score, you wouldn't know who ran what from the score."

This is Nelson's second time participating in the event.

"I did it last year with another group of Marines," Nelson said. "It's a smoker, but I think it's a great test of your ability to execute some of those tasks that have to be done in combat. It's great [physical training] and it's a good way to understand a little more about what the Marines do and learn about their mentality."