I was asked on Wednesday afternoon to be a substi-Q for Centurion this week. With having a 5 week old kid at the house, I was reluctant to commit. But I told Chelms I’d do my best to be there, but to have a back up plan ready just in case. Not sure which plan would have been better, but I think they both were equally as bad. It all went down like this…
Warm up mosey down Little, left on Walsh, and into the old Centurion parking lot for a little COP:
Head on over to the parking deck for “The Beast” – parking deck edition. 6 reps at every turn in the deck all the way to the top = 6 sets. Repeat for 6 rounds with different called exercise each time. Instead of planking at the end to wait for the six, people’s chair with variations each time. At the end of each round, run down the stairs and start from the bottom again…and again…and again….
Down the steps again and back to the parking lot for Mary:
COT
That’s a wrap!
Ye Naked Moleskin:
Great group of guys this morning including our newest addition, Bus Stop (Nick M. – 26 years young – HATE HATE!) Asked how he knew mermaid, because there had been talk of another guy Mermaid EH’d at the pool (or steam room) showing up. Turns out the two met at the bus stop. The name was thrown out there, but we dug deeper to find out who he really is, man. Then we just gave up and went back to Bus Stop. Welcome aboard and we look forward to seeing you again next week if not before!
The parking deck beast is chock full of suck. It was all up hill the entire time! Up, up, up, up, up we went over and over again. The molotov merkins were a bad idea after about the 2nd set. Glad nobody lost their teeth. The people’s chair variations are always fun(ish). The leg shaking kicked in earlier than normal for me when we lifted our heels off the ground. I prefer to go longer with each of those, but the beast was chewing up time quickly. I don’t think anyone had a problem cutting them off.
I would call out who was crushing it out there, but I would say it was a lot of you because I seemed to be “leading from behind” the entire morning! By the time I would get to the top each round, everything was a little blurry and shaky! So props to everyone. I will call out Lug Nut, my FNG from 3 weeks ago. Great job to keep coming back each week, although he may or may not have sat a round out to spill some merlot! He rallies with the best of them though.
Thanks again to everyone for the great morning. Felt great to lead this group of men today. I did hear Snow Flake say towards the end that I am his favorite QIC. Not going to lie, it felt nice. Unfortunately it was a little late in the game to start sucking up. You should have done that before the beast started! Scabby also pointed out the repetition of the beast was the same definition of insanity. I concur. It was basic, nothing fancy, just continuous pain. I like it.
Announcements:
F3 5 Year Anniversary Party is tomorrow night. See website for details. No ticket sales at the door, must purchase online before. If you want to clown car, reach out to Chelms. He’s selling spots in his 3rd row.
Posted on behalf of Lobsta Roll as he’s having trouble with his credentials. However, he had no trouble delivering a severe beatdown to us on Saturday. Kind of foreshadowing what happened in the Super Bowl last night…
With high intensity on the Q’s mind because that is what this w/o is about right!?….. we did the following after a loop around the perimeter to get the blood flowing;
Hold plank of the following:
20 IC plank jacks
15 OYO merkins
20IC peter parker
15 OYO merkins
20IC parker peter
15 OYO merkins
20IC IW
20IC Squat
With a light jog out to the far end of the field, we continue our task at keeping the intensity up…
With is distance of approx. 30-35 yards, broad jump burpee out and bear crawl back…plank and wait
Repeat with a double broad jump burpee out and crab walk back…plank and wait
Repeat with a triple broad jump burpee out and lunge walk back…plank and wait
One more time..broad jump across, 5 burpees and jog back…plank and wait
Quick jog to the rocks….pick a lifting rock…maybe I was not clear as some PAX rocks were not lifting rocks…intensity right?!..well we did this:
20IC Shoulder Press
10 merkins
20IC Tricep ext
10 merkins
20IC curl
10 merkins
Jog out to first soccer goal
15IC Shoulder Press
10 merkins
15IC Tricep ext
10 merkins
15IC curl
10 merkins
Jog out to 2nd soccer goal
10IC Shoulder Press
10 merkins
10IC Tricep ext
10 merkins
10IC curl
10 merkins
Jog out to 3rd soccer goal
5IC Shoulder Press
10 merkins
5IC Tricep ext
10 merkins
5IC curl
10 merkins
Jog perimeter and settle at the basketball court
20IC Right over left crunch
20IC left over right crunch
Split into 2 groups
Group 1 does 10 burpees a min for 10 mins while group 2 does 10 pull-ups a min for 10 mins
Flap jack
End with some abbreviated mary:
20IC Flutter
Protractor
This is Prohibition speaking again. It may not look that bad on paper, but I was am still sore from it. It was brutal. Definitely worthy of the #highintensity. Thanks for the lead Lobsta. You are welcome to come by and check on us any time! Thanks to Gronk for joining us all the way from Durham while in town visiting family.
10 men decided to shake out the cob webs and work off the good spirits of Christmas this morning at Day Zero. With the Q suffering from a food hangover and missing a couple of pre-workout staples, it got a little ugly out there this morning. It went something like this:
Warm up lap around the track and circle up on the basketball court
COP:
Run up Carswell and Right onto 51 to Calvary with a stop at Elm Ln for some additional SSHs. Wave to the 5 FIA ladies running around the parking lot at The Rock talking about their nails. Head into the Hot Box.
Run over to Entrance 4 where the ladies of FIA seem to be doing some stretching. They may need to hit up the waxing center, because the tall skinny one named Hopper was looking a little hairy. This is where admittedly YHC tried something new and had a Q-Fail. Mosey to bottom of hill and Bear Sprint (like a crawl, but move hands together and then feet together) up the hill. That didn’t work.
Time to get moving and run down Rea to Bevington. Run back to Elm and gather together. Run to each street (left & right side) and turn back for the six, then on to next street. Kind of like an awkward long suicide. Once at Carswell, AYG back to school.
Line up along wall. With feet on wall:
Mosey to rock pile and pick up a lift rock/stone
Back up to parking lot for 90 seconds of Mary
That is all.
Moleskin:
As I said, YHC was not really feeling it this morning and wasn’t sure I was going to hold up. Since losing my Clif Bar on the drive over somewhere under the seat, and then forgetting to pop some gum as I always do, I was not on my game this morning (hence not getting back up to 10 burpees in the COP). But with 5 fasties here today, I had no choice but to lead from behind all morning. Solid work by everyone and thanks for giving the bear sprints a try. Well, Swiper refusniked right out of the gate. Maybe he’s smarter than he looks.
Rachel made a return to where he was named and again proved to be worthy of the name. Dude was crushing it. High Tide made his debut at Day Zero. When I pulled into the parking lot he was standing next to his Kettle Bell. For a second I thought I was at the wrong workout. Thanks for joining us, keep coming back. Frasier is a man that could only hold back for so long. He just couldn’t stand seeing Rachel and Swiper up front, so he had to make a move running down Rea to get to the front. Fletch got in on the action as well. Then McGee beast moded it up with them too. It felt like a regular Tuesday at Fast Twitch watching all these people run way ahead of me. Dear Abby found out quickly that if you just hang back on the Bevington suicides, you never had to run back and just kept a nice mosey. That’s why he’s a reporter, folks. Very intuitive.
All in all, I am smoked and my shoulders don’t like me very much. All of the upsidedown, blood rushing to the head, CDD’s and other wall activities were terrible. Definitely going to do more of that in the future.
It’s been a great 2015 at Day Zero and I look forward to an ever better and more painful 2016. See you all next year! That is just next Saturday, so don’t think we’re shutting down anytime soon!
Announcements:
18 of Area 51’s fastest men decided to strap on their speed and distance boots this morning at Fast Twitch. A warning the night before was tweeted out that it would be all running. That’s what happened. With a couple minutes before the clock struck 5:15, YHC explained that this would be a series of tempo runs and recovery runs. Here’s how it went:
The Thang:
Out of the parking lot and into Raintree for a warmup mosey to the top of Windbluff. At the top, no exercises called, just take a moment to stretch while YHC refreshed everyone on the plan.
At the end of each tempo run, everyone turn back to collect the six. Total mileage: 7.25 miles give or take for some.
Moleskin:
When I saw this week’s Q schedule and noticed my name was listed for Fast Twitch, I thought to myself I just want to keep it simple. In talking to Turkey Leg, he mentioned that an assistant of his (who remains nameless on this post) had been letting the mileage get pretty low lately at Fast Twitch. I obliged and decided to “Make Fast Twitch Great Again”. No merkins, no COP, no burpees, no planks, no 10 counts, our hands never touched the ground. Just straight up gut wrenching running. Push yourself hard up the hills, recover on the downhills.
Solid work by everyone today. 18 guys really pushed it this morning and I think we are all way ahead of where we were a year ago for Blue Ridge Relay training. Gummy and Baracus complained a little bit about the recovery runs were not recovering enough. Alf had flashbacks to hot Ghost Runner nights. Turkey Leg was dealing with some spicy Ghengis Grill regrets. Hairball and Gerber were straight cruising out there. Everyone else: solid job, men. Chime in below with your experiences out there this morning.
Thanks for letting me lead and gutting out over 7 miles in an hour…or an hour + a few minutes. My bad.
Announcements:
Toy Drive – Last week of collections.
Joe Davis Run – Sign up today!
23 men decided to come to Death Valley this morning. Many of those men were still in quite a bit of pain from the BRR. Some of these men chose Death Valley as a recovery workout. Yeah, that’s pretty much what they got.
The Thangalang:
Mosey down the dark, rocky, dirt, crackly path around the baseball field and onto the outfield for a little COP:
Mosey back up to parking lot and partner up. Partner 1 grabs a cinder block while Partner 2 does some plankorama. Partner 1 carry cinder block to end of parking lot and back (approx. 200 total yards) while Partner 2 does called exercise. Flap Jack.
Partner 1 does called exercise with block while Partner 2 runs around parking lot. Flap Jack after each round.
Partner 2 returns cinder blocks while Partner 1 does some Mary. (Gas Leak #1)
Mosey over to school wall and line up for people’s chair. (Gas Leak #2) Air Presses for a 50 down up count.
Mosey back to end of parking for some wind sprints x 3 rounds.
COT
That is all.
Moleskin:
Great group of guys out there this morning including FNG TELEMUNDO!!! (Dave S.). Great work out there and come back any time you are in town. You are welcome to kick start F3 Manhattan. I’d love to visit!
Iron Horse stated right out of the gate that he chose to come to Death Valley over Anvil squarely because DV would be easier with YHC at the realm. Fair Enough as I was definitely struggling from the BRR. My brain was clearly struggling at times this morning, as well (Air Press counting, obviously making some things up as I went, checking the watch…checking the watch…checking the watch). I do remember Gummy saying my air press count sounded like a dying fire alarm.
Lots of mummblechatter out there this morning. Started with your site Q Semi-Gloss requesting merkins in the COP. Continued with Spackler requesting burpees as the first partner exercise. Radar must have still been angry from the BRR because he decided to smash his cinder block. Good Hands had to pick up all the pieces as if he was Purple Haze. Good Hands has a solid future ahead of him as Radar’s #2.
We also had a couple of gas leaks this morning. The first came from Horsehead during some Mary. It sounded like wet gas. The second was coming from the school gas line. Run Stopper quickly ran off to alert someone in the school. The little guy in all black tights went running up to a school at 6am. #Smart. He said “it’s been reported”. Pretty sure I saw blue lights coming towards the school on my way home.
Again, great group of guys this morning. Thanks for letting me lead and hopefully we shook some of the achy-ness off from the weekend CSAUP. Next week should be back to a normal heavy hitting Death Valley workout.
Until next time,
Prohibition
26 Men decided they needed one last week of Fast Twitch punishment to get them primed for the BRR. YHC, with limited notice of being tasked with the Q, decided not to be original and to recreate Turkey Leg’s Hills Of Pain from just a few weeks ago. It was terrible then, and it was just as terrible today. Here’s out it went down:
Warm Up Mosey to Raintree Lane, down past the clubhouse to the very bottom of the hill by the gravel parking lot and speed hump. From there give out the instructions for the Hills Of Pain:
Split into 2 groups.
Group 1 continue up Raintree Ln. Take a right onto Four Mile Creek and run down to the bottom of the hill to the speed hump. Perform Jump Squats. Run back to Raintree Ln speed hump.
Group 2 back up Raintree Ln. Take a right onto Windbluff and run down to the bottom of the hill to the speed hump. Perform Jump Squats. Run back to Raintree Ln speed hump.
At Raintree Ln. speed hump, do 20 merkins. Each group continue in other direction to complete 2nd half of lap.
That was one lap. At bottom of the hills, the Jump Squats will increase with each lap: Lap 1 = 5. Lap 2 = 10. Lap 3 = 15. Frasier = 20.
Meet back at bottom of Raintree Ln at 0605 for Indian Run back to school. At approximately 0605 just run back to the school.
That is all.
Moleskin:
Strong group of 26 out there today. I think we are all ready for the BRR…or at least ready for it to be over. Great work by everyone today. I heard a few guys got in at least 7 miles, but I think everyone got at least 6 or so. Frasier disappeared into the darkness and there is no telling how many miles he put in. Chelms ran off before YHC was finished giving very detailed and long winded instructions. I don’t know why. After that, I don’t really know who all did what out there this morning since we were all spread out. Just a big group of fast people coming in all directions, including a very well-lit Alf. I do know that Fletch was flying, Turkey Leg had to bowel out towards the end (see what I did there?), Baracus swears I was almost catching Frasier, Hairball traded his Borat suit for a Marty McFly Jr. hat, Horsehead ran so strong he couldn’t talk, nobody seemed to hear me about meeting back at 0605 at the bottom of Raintree, Mr. Brady is ridiculously fast, Spackler refusniked on all the exercises per usual, and I hope we don’t have to do that one again for a very long time.
Kotters to Purple Haze, assistant to the Site Q. We missed you and are glad to have you back. Thanks for the great takeout. You looked strong out there. So strong.
Announcements:
Area 51 Kick Off to Football Game this Saturday at Olympus. Check the schedule to see what workouts are still open and/or closed.
Purple Haze will decide on his own whether or not Fast Twitch will be hard or a taper next week.
With the shovel flag safely secured somewhere in Hairball’s garage, 6 men took to the streets around the Day Zero AO to put in some serious work. Here’s how it went:
Warm up lap around the “track” to the basketball court.
COP:
10 burpees OYO
30 SSH IC
9 burpees OYO
27 IW IC
8 burpees OYO
24 Low Slow Squats IC
7 burpees OYO
21 MC IC
6 burpees OYO
18 Peter Parkers IC
5 burpees OYO
15 Slow Merkins IC
4 burpees OYO
12 Heels to Heaven IC
3 burpees OYO
9 Slow Wide Arm Merkins IC
2 burpees OYO
6 J-Lo’s IC
1 burpees OYO
3 Diamond Merkins IC
The Thang:
Mosey out the front of the school, right on Carswell, right on Bevington around the loop to Brechin Dr. with one stop for LBCs along the way to keep the group together.
7’s on (son of a) Brechin:
– Jump Squats at the bottom
– Molotov Merkins at the stop sign at the end of the street
25 Flutters IC
25 Dollies IC
Mosey back to the Rose parking lot and behind the Tuesday Morning to The Wall. Partner up:
-Partner 1 sits on the wall and does air presses
-Partner 2 runs back around the shopping center, up the steps and back around to the back of the building.
-Flapjack
-Wall Plank for a 20 count
-Balls to the Wall for a 20 count
Back to the AO for a little Mary:
-Freddie Mercury x 25 ic
-Protracter
COT
The End.
Naked Moleskin:
Teddy had it going on today with the ladies of the neighborhood. It started on the run to Brechin when Teddy kindly wished a female walker “Good Morning” and she did not reciprocate. Must have been bashful and left speechless with Teddy’s smiling and staring. Then once on Brechin, a lady commented about all these men running towards her and no doubt she was checking out Teddy. Then a much more age acceptable female was walking on Bevington and Teddy was convinced she had laser beams focused on his pecks. The jury is still out. This of course moved into TR realizing Teddy’s bachelor status to where he proceeded for the next 30 minutes giving Teddy dating advice about the ladies of the coin laundromat and mail-order brides.
The temps were just about perfect this morning for another rendition of a Day Zero beatdown. We covered just over 4 miles and worked as many muscles as we could in an hour. Strong showing by everyone. It was great to have Mario join us today as he is still getting acquainted with Area 51. Keep coming back. We’re here every Saturday! Great to have Margo out with us today, as well. He was crushing it on the 7’s. The Swede was in usual beast mode, although having to carry the “baby alert” phone may have slowed him down a tad. Keep us posted, brother. TR, as usual, managed to only do a handful of the called exercises, although he did show up early and get in an extra 2.5 miles. Thanks for the takeout.
Announcements:
9 men braved the thick, steamy morning heat for a beatdown that left everyone wanting to get out of the circle in the middle of the field. It went something like this:
Mosey around track w/ some added butt kickers and high knees. Circle up in the middle of the field and a disclaimer was disclaimed.
Circle of PAIN:
Recovery Lap around the track and back to the middle of the field.
Tabata Time:
20 seconds on/10 seconds off for 8 sets of each exercise (total of 4 minutes per exercise)
Recovery Lap around the track, up the steps and to the driveway by the field house.
Suicide Run back to cars (1st light post, 2nd light post, to the cars)
Just a wee bit of Mary:
Flutters x 15 (last 5 very slow)
WE DONE!
Moleskin:
Not much of a breeze this am on that field this morning. It was some thick air and the sweat was pouring. So bad that my phone stopped letting me touch it. The Tabata timer had to get switched from phone countdown app to the ol’ traditional stopwatch on my wrist since I was so sweaty I couldn’t swipe anything on the phone.
We spent a lot of time in the center of the field. Next time, I’ll explore the campus a little better. I was planning for some stair work, but the extended COP + Tabata which was cut short (I left off the burpees – you’re welcome) took up more than enough time…and energy.
Thanks to everyone welcoming me as their Q this morning. I’m sorry I don’t make it out to The Charge often enough. I will do my best to make it a more regular workout. The AO is fantastic! Baracus, keep putting me on the schedule.
Shout out Brutus for being a Site FNG. If it wasn’t Brutus, then I apologize and let me know who it was in the comments. Shout out to Tesla for the take out.
Announcements:
14 Men showed up to Day Zero this morning to become stronger and work some beach muscles. They all won. With the Shovel Flag firmly planted and the tunes on the mini pipe bomb boom box pumpin’, it went something like this:
Prohibition Q
Merkins x 25 in cadence
Run around the back of school, past the dumpsters, and to the front of the school and circle up for a Circle of Pain;
Very short mosey to the sidewalk closest to the school and line up.
Very short mosey to the curb on side of parking lot for the BEAST:
Runstopper Q
Mosey to back of school and grab a rock stone of medium size and carry it up the wall on the back side of the school for some people’s chair:
Grab stone and head over to playground and partner up:
Grab stone and head out to the shady part of the field:
Return stones and head up to main parking lot:
Doneski
Moleskin:
Lots of mummble chatter from the get go this morning, as per usual, due to a tweet last night stating YHC’s lead on the #10kmerkins challenge. Of course when you want to press on with the merkins and force the pax to join in when they don’t really want to, they will let you know how they feel and will taunt you with comments about Chuck Norris. YHC ignored and pressed on until he cried in his car on the way to coffeeteria, as per usual.
Great having 2 FNG’s this morning! Welcome Boy Band and Pita! Looking forward to having you guys back. Glad Boy Band made it and that we didn’t run off campus early on as he came in on two wheels a little bit into the COP. Both of you did great this morning. That was a tough one for a first time, especially on the first week of the merkin challenge. Also, shout out to Ike for coming back out. Great work out there! I’ll be sure to put some Tina Turner and some Aaron Carter on the playlist next time….not really.
We discovered that when doing 16’s (as opposed to 11’s or 7’s) that what you might think is going to be the tough part (the merkins after just doing 100) would turn out to be the opposite with the horribleness of 120 Squat Jumps. Sorry not sorry for having to cut short The Beast. Next time we’ll squeeze in the others exercises.
We also were reminded that calm Runstopper is a crazy Runstopper. When we switched to him, he immediately called for a 20 count rest and spoke to us in a soft voice. That quickly changed when he started barking at us with upside down merkins and doing 150 airpresses in cadence with no break. Holy Shoulder Smokers, Batman! I think we need to find a way to separate Runstopper and Mr. Jack Webb. Their love affair has gone on for way too long now. Runstopper gets angry when Radar speaks during Jack Webb.
Lots of merkins today. For those of you counting at home, we did a total of 392 if you did them all. Encouraged by our much older, retired site Q’s YHC & Hairball pushed out another 8 to make it an even 400 on the morning. Not bad.
Thanks everyone for a great morning and Thank You to Runstopper for the Q. Come on out more often!
Announcements:
With 3 shovel flags planted firmly into the earth, 52 men and one photographer spent an hour honoring the brave men and women who have fought for our country. It went something like this:
0700 – Radar, Purple Haze & Prohibition take the flags and carry them out to the middle of the field.
PART I: COP – Radar on Q
Radar had the Pax count off into 4s (to make your team) and then had the odd numbers step forward to create two circles. Radar then asked everyone to all take a knee and then informed us that there were approximately 455,000 American deaths in WWII…an average of 297 deaths per day. He then read Citation #1 – Sgt. Sylvester Antolak (see full citation below)
Radar asked the 2.0s to take the flags and lead us in three lines to the Yellow Rose parking lot.
Part II: Main Exercises – Purple Haze on Q
Purple Haze asked everyone to take a knee and then informed us that there were nearly 60,000 American deaths in the Vietnam War along with over 150,000 wounded. He then read Citation #2 – Pfc. Gary Martini (see full citation below)
In your groups of 4:
Repeat above except with 10 squats for the CMIYC.
Again the Pax lined up into three lines behind our flag carrying 2.0s and returned to the fields.
Part III: Final Exercises – Prohibition on Q
Back on the field, YHC had Pax bring it in tight and elbow plank shoulder to shoulder around the flags. The Pax remained in the elbow plank position while listening to a Ronal Reagan speech found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzUU-hdtxv8
YHC then asked everyone to take a knee while I read Citation #3 – Corp. Jason Dunham (see full citation below)
YHC then encouraged the Pax to “suffer in silence” as we do 100 burpees and asked that guys who finish early, help out a fellow brother by doing additional burpees to help them finish. At the very end, YHC asked everyone to do an additional 5 to help out those that couldn’t.
Ball of Man:
Purple Haze took us out with fine words about remembering and honoring those that gave their lives for our freedom and that we always endeavor to uphold the ideals for which they died. We then concluded with The Lord’s Prayer.
Moleskin:
Thank you all for joining us at Day Zero today to honor America and those that have fought for it and paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy every day. It was a great group of men and 2.0s out there today and everyone truly gave it their all. This was the second year we have done this workout and I would like to make it a tradition going forward. I hope you will continue to join us.
A special thank you to Purple Haze and Radar for creating Day Zero two years ago today. I know it has been difficult to let it go, but Hairball and I are honored to keep your legacy alive and I hope we are continuing to build it the way you intended it.
Also, thank you to Alf and TR for bringing the hairburner plates. You are welcome to thank them personally however you see fit.
Announcements:
CITATIONS:
*ANTOLAK, SYLVESTER
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 15th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division
Place and date: Near Cisterna di Littoria, Italy, 24 May 1944
Entered service at: St. Clairsville, Ohio
Citation: Near Cisterna di Littoria, Italy, he charged 200 yards over flat, coverless terrain to destroy an enemy machinegun nest during the second day of the offensive which broke through the German cordon of steel around the Anzio beachhead. Fully 30 yards in advance of his squad, he ran into withering enemy machinegun, machine-pistol and rifle fire. Three times he was struck by bullets and knocked to the ground, but each time he struggled to his feet to continue his relentless advance. With one shoulder deeply gashed and his right arm shattered, he continued to rush directly into the enemy fire concentration with his submachinegun wedged under his uninjured arm until within 15 yards of the enemy strong point, where he opened fire at deadly close range, killing 2 Germans and forcing the remaining 10 to surrender. He reorganized his men and, refusing to seek medical attention so badly needed, chose to lead the way toward another strong point 100 yards distant. Utterly disregarding the hail of bullets concentrated upon him, he had stormed ahead nearly three-fourths of the space between strong points when he was instantly killed by hostile enemy fire. Inspired by his example, his squad went on to overwhelm the enemy troops. By his supreme sacrifice, superb fighting courage, and heroic devotion to the attack, Sgt. Antolak was directly responsible for eliminating 20 Germans, capturing an enemy machinegun, and clearing the path for his company to advance.
*MARTINI, GARY W.
Rank and Organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company F, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division
Place and Date: Binh Son, Republic of Vietnam, 21 April 1967
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. On 21 April 1967, during Operation UNION* elements of Company F, conducting offensive operations at Binh Son, encountered a firmly entrenched enemy force and immediately deployed to engage them. The marines in Pfc. Martini’s platoon assaulted across an open rice paddy to within 20 meters of the enemy trench line where they were suddenly struck by hand grenades, intense small arms, automatic weapons, and mortar fire. The enemy onslaught killed 14 and wounded 18 marines, pinning the remainder of the platoon down behind a low paddy dike. In the face of imminent danger, Pfc. Martini immediately crawled over the dike to a forward open area within 15 meters of the enemy position where, continuously exposed to the hostile fire, he hurled hand grenades, killing several of the enemy. Crawling back through the intense fire, he rejoined his platoon which had moved to the relative safety of a trench line. From this position he observed several of his wounded comrades Lying helpless in the fire-swept paddy. Although he knew that 1 man had been killed attempting to assist the wounded, Pfc. Martini raced through the open area and dragged a comrade back to a friendly position. In spite of a serious wound received during this first daring rescue, he again braved the unrelenting fury of the enemy fire to aid another companion Lying wounded only 20 meters in front of the enemy trench line. As he reached the fallen marine, he received a mortal wound, but disregarding his own condition, he began to drag the marine toward his platoon’s position. Observing men from his unit attempting to leave the security of their position to aid him, concerned only for their safety, he called to them to remain under cover, and through a final supreme effort, moved his injured comrade to where he could be pulled to safety, before he fell, succumbing to his wounds. Stouthearted and indomitable, Pfc. Martini unhesitatingly yielded his life to save 2 of his comrades and insure the safety of the remainder of his platoon. His outstanding courage, valiant fighting spirit and selfless devotion to duty reflected the highest credit upon himself, the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
*Corporal Jason L. Dunham
Date of Issue: 01/11/2007
Organization: U.S. Marine Corps, Company K, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham’s squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander’s convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.