Four Marines trained an Air Force base to take the Marine Corps fitness test. The Air Force gave them medals for it.; Task & Purpose, September 9, 2024

MATT WHITE, Task & Purpose; Four Marines trained an Air Force base to take the Marine Corps fitness test. The Air Force gave them medals for it 

[Kip Currier: Proud son of a U.S. Air Force veteran -- my Dad -- with my early boyhood years spent on a USAF base, and also have Marine culture present in my life, too. 

Thanks to ALL who served/serve to keep us safe and work tirelessly to maintain our democracy.

Using this cool, inspiring story in my Strategic Planning lecture later today for my Managing and Leading Information Services graduate course this term...Great examples of:

• having a Leadership Vision
• setting and attaining Goals and Objectives
• adapting to Organizational Culture
• promoting Collaboration and Diversity/Inclusion
• embracing and managing Change
• facilitating Communication
• recognizing/celebrating Achievement and Success]

[Excerpts]

"Since 2022, a small group of Marines at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas have been holding Marine Corps-style PT sessions for airmen going through the base’s professional development schools.

Their goal: get the troops from the Air Force — often denigrated by more fitness-oriented branches as the ‘Chair Force’ — to pass the Marine Corps’ grueling Combat Fitness Test.

Apparently, the Marines did such a dedicated, motivated and fired-up job that the base commander decorated them with Air Force medals.

Marine Sgt. Alexander Martinez led the program and was one of four Marines who received an award for developing the fitness regimen.

“Being a Marine on an Air Force base is a culture shock, but working with a sister branch in a joint effort is extremely valuable,” Martinez told Task & Purpose in an email...

“The airmen are most enthusiastic when they finish the entire CFT and sometimes they will ask if they can run another one in the future,” said Alexander.

Some, he said, truly excelled. Senior Airman Svetlana Escobar joined Martinez’s team of instructors after scoring a perfect 300.

In the last two years at Little Rock, the Marines put nine classes of the Airman Leadership School through the training, along with 12 other professional seminars and three all-base sporting events with 400 people."