Building better Airmen: Peterson takes on Team Cohesion Challenge

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Rose Gudex
  • 21st Space Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  Five grueling hours of extreme tasks, sore muscles, pouring sweat and mud weren't enough to keep Peterson Airmen from completing the GoRuck Light, Team Cohesion Challenge here, Aug. 29.

Participants spent two hours doing high-intensity calisthenics before hiking around base for the next almost three hours with rucks on their backs and completing tasks designed to challenge them both physically and mentally.

The fitness program is a partnership between GoRuck and the Air Force, which is intended to help promote unit cohesiveness, leadership and teamwork," said Glen Wells, GoRuck cadre.

"It brings people together through an environment that's not normal," he said. "If you do an arduous event together or a very physical event together, it requires teamwork and you're building a community. Not only that, but you're building a community where people will remember each other through perseverance."

Wells said the event may seem daunting, but really if a person can walk, they can also ruck. The upside was because this is a team event, no one was be left behind. Every person in the team was integral to the success of the group.

"When we say we're building better Americans, we're trying to get Americans off social media and socialize with each other," he said. 

Teambuilding started the moment their rucks were donned. Each person expected to be challenged, but may not have quite expected the teamwork to be so important. No one person could complete tasks on their own, said Airman Jason Owens, 21st Aerospace Medicine Squadron bioenvironmental engineering technician.

It was the teamwork that drew him to compete in the challenge. He said anything physical and pushes the mind and body is important.

"Teamwork is especially important in the military because we're one team," Owens said. "In war there is a need for mental toughness just to survive. GoRuck was designed by (special operations military members) and the teamwork and leadership translates into GoRuck events."

When it got tough completing tasks, he said he thought of his teammates and forgot about the strain and pain his muscles felt. If the team succeeded, each individual succeeded. It really gave each person a sense of humility and teamwork.

Those tasks ranged from bear crawls and soccer while crab walking to carrying huge logs and doing flutter-kicks while being sprayed with a fire hose, which was Owens' favorite part.

"It changed up the mood," he said. "You're wet and cold and the suck level goes way up, but you push harder to get through it."

Making it to the end brought exhausted smiles to the faces of participating Airmen as they discussed their favorite, or most challenging tasks.

After discussing their triumphs, participants talked about other physically demanding events they could do and teams they could build. That discussion was the goal of the event, to get Airmen to work as one and take a team approach to challenging tasks.

 

United States Space Force logo

Official United States Space Force Website