AO: The Ridge
When: 05/02/2023
Number of Pax: 26
DR Names:
Number of FNGS: 1
FNG Names:
QIC: Squidward
Introduction
Arrived on site just before 0500 so that Scat and I could have a few minutes to walk the AO and put a couple cones out and set up the music in prep for Top Gun Academy.
Warm-O-Rama
Had PAX run in place while I covered the F3 opening statements.
- Good mornings/nights (x10)
- Daisy pickers (x10)
- Calf stretches (10 count)
The Thang
Moseyed over to the grassy area south of the volleyball court for Thang 1.
Thang 1 (Top Gun school induction): While playing the song “Highway to the Danger Zone” hold plank until the chorus, then do V-up’s (aka Frog SUs – hat tip to Navy SEALs) during the “Highway to the DZ” chorus. Mix in high/low planks and shoulder taps for variety (repeated these moves until the song was over).
Thang 2 (Sortie flights; theme: NEVER leave your wingman): Broke PAX into groups of 4. While playing a selection of Top Gun/80’s-themed songs, had the first flight of two run across the sand volleyball court to the grass on the other side where they completed 5 burpees), while the other two teammates remained at home base doing SSH. Once the flight of two returned, teams swapped. Additional iterations changed from burpees to big boys, merkins, and squats.
Thang 3 (formation flight and engagement maneuvers): Assembled the flight into two-file formation. Instructed the PAX that during the engagement maneuver (last man up run), they should fly 6 ft behind the aircraft in front of them so that, once in flight, the last PAX would have enough space to maneuver his aircraft to the front of the formation flight, ensuring that he buzzed the tower of each PAX in the last man up formation (weaving in and out).
Thang 4 (carrier launches) aka sprints: Lined PAX up at one end of the hockey rink and “launched” them in sprints against other aircraft. Repeated a few iterations.
Thang 5 (oppressor/aggressor evasive flight maneuver training) aka tag: used the last three minutes to run Thang 5, which I’d not previously conducted when running this BC in the past. Designated the hockey rink as a “flight training area”, then instructed PAX that they must remain within the boundaries of the training area, or face disqualification, while I served as the oppressor aircraft attempting to tag them. It was a fun way to end the beatdown and I recruited a couple others to assist me in tagging the remaining aircraft. 🙂
Circle of Trust
Shared with the men that Squid’s Navy, aka the battalion, YHC is conducting with several other brothers this week is dedicated to the memory of my father who passed away 2/18/23. My pops was a 24-year Navy veteran who loved his country, and although he retired in 1984, he never really left the Navy.
Without getting too wordy here, what I was attempting to share was that when we talk about the fourth quadrant in QSource, “Leave Right”, it generally focuses on constructing a legacy and the importance of doing so. We don’t just wake up one morning and decide, “well today I’m going to work on leaving a legacy”, in fact, we don’t even get a say as to how our legacy is truly determined or carried out. Instead, we rely on how well we’ve lived out our lives in the other three quadrants and hope that our loved ones, our friends, our F3 brothers, carry on our legacy in their memories, actions, words, etc.
So that is what I am doing, sharing my Dad’s story as a way to remember his legacy and the love I have for him…
Naked Man Moleskin
“A man’s Legacy is not comprised simply of what he happens to say and do during his lifetime. Rather, Legacy is constructed through the people a man has intentionally Influenced during his life and the Problems that he deliberately sets out to solve – all compounded by his love and generosity of heart in passing on what he knows.”
QSource, Q4