#cross-training

Lightning pilot….

NORTH SEA (October 10, 2020) -- United States Marine Corps fighter pilot Major Christopher Brandt, attached to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, prepares for takeoff in an F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aboard British Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R 08).

                                  HMS Queen Elizabeth (R 08)

The U.S. Marine Corps pilots and flight crews are onboard the British carrier to conduct cross-training with their United Kingdom counterparts in preparation for the UK's Carrier Strike Group deployment coming up in Spring 2021. The carrier will deploy with the brand-new F-35B Lightning II’s onboard....and ready for action.

                                        __________________

>>CLICK the photos for a much closer look....

>>In the sixth photo above....showing Major Brandt taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth....note the position of the main engine, directing thrust almost downward....as his supersonic short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B takes off from the ski-jump forward flight deck.

- it felt unbelievably good to take out all my frustration on a bag

- it was dark and the music was super loud and the trainer was shouting encouragement over a loudspeaker occasionally which means that i was completely in my zone and able to lose myself in throwing my punches, which was physically and mentally therapeutic 

- my entire body got an insanely good workout 

- i’m sore as hell today but literally don’t care

- i can’t wait to book my next class

- (and i’m sad that i have to wait until tomorrow to do it so i can do it with a friend from work who wanted to go) 

Yesterday morning I inadvertently went to the Strength class at Not Crossfit instead of the general one. As suspected, they’re quite similar; in stations, all the exercises are weights or core, with no mountain climbers, jumping jacks, treadmill sprints, skaters... you get the idea. However, the lifts are often more complicated, and several of them I had not done before. They weren’t impossible, it was just a lot of information to take in, particularly at 6am when I forgot to eat before class first. 

A new dawn on the flight deck….

SEA OF JAPAN (October 16, 2019) -- United States Navy Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Laurence Cerezo, USN -- the flight deck officer -- guides a United States Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter to a safe landing on the flight deck of the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) during joint deck landing qualifications.

                                           USS Milius (DDG 69)

The inter-operability between different branches of American armed services has taken on a renewed emphasis in recent years....with cross-training exercises and qualifications becoming more extensive all the time....even, like here, many thousands of miles from home.

It’s a new dawn in the cohesiveness of Americas military forces....all around the world.

United States Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopter

                                       _____________________

>>Note: The HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter pictured in the top photo is assigned to the U.S. Air Force’s 33rd Rescue Squadron, based at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa, Japan.

I don’t know when I will be in a Place With Regards To Myself to attempt to do a pull-up with a resistance band. I can’t so much as look at them without imagining breaking one. These are the big industrial kind, not the kind you get free at PT (which I have broken, and it wasn’t a big deal). Last night in class the trainer was really eager to get me to try and it would have been a good opportunity, I just... said everything except “Hey, I probably weigh too much to do this, hanging from the bar makes me nervous enough and that’s anchored into the wall.” 

(So easy to picture. A thick resonant crackle under my unwilling feet. Finally the dull snap! that turns every head in the gym. The bitten cheek of the trainer as she searches for what to say. My cheeks burning worse than the workout.)