Whirlybird

DATE: 3/24/21

QIC: Chappie

The Grit Mill was greeted by 8 PAX who won THAT FIRST BATTLE against the fartsack and posted for a ruck beatdown–tailored by YHC to limit being too mobile with hopes of bringing some recovery to an ankle feeling every bit of 53-yrs-old.

PAX included FNG Steve McDougall (n.k.a MacDaddy). As YHC was welcoming our FNG, he asked if YHC knew him or remembered him. He looked familiar but had to jog YHC’s memory. Amazing! Steve was the guy who came into my room when I was hospitalized with COVID19 back in December. Then, he put a new IV in my arm, we talked for awhile, YHC EH’d him (anywhere, anytime, baby!). But the most remarkable thing YHC remembers is that before Steve left my room, he knelt beside my bed, grabbed my hand, and prayed for my recovery. That’s a HIM right there! Since that week in mid-December Looney Tunes EH’d him as well. Sometimes it takes a few contacts with F3 HIM before guys will actually post. EH! EH! EH! Welcome to F3 MacDaddy! (So named because he’s carried several “Mac” nicknames, especially in the USMC, but now he’s got 5 children.)

Anyway, YHC created a ruck workout with some Grit (he hopes) but with limited mobility (travel), and here’s how it all went down:

WARM-O-RAMA:

• SSH – 18 IC
• Windmill – 10 IC
• Ruck Jump Squats (side jump over ruck, squat. rinse & Repeat) – 10 OYO
• Cherry Pickers – 10 IC

Now, for some Jack…

• Smurfjacks – 10 IC
• Swartzjacks – 10 IC
• Splitjacks – 18 IC
• Sealjacks – 18 IC
• Bombjacks – 10 OYO

THE THANG:

• Deadlifts x 50 ☆ Overhead carry around library
• Ruck Step Ups x 50 (sc) ☆ Suitcase carry around library (half/half)
• Overhead Shoulder Press x 50 (sc) ☆ Lunge-walk 1/2 around library
• Ruck Pull Side-to-side x 50, (due to time) FOLLOWED BY Ruck Merkins x 50

The following 3rdF was shared mid-workout:

UPDATED 3/24/21 for the Grit Mill

If you’ve been around F3 First State for any length if time, then you know I often share 3rd F messages based upon my personal military experiences. This one has 3 core components: A military experience, an F3 leadership principle, and a biblical text that most are at least familiar with.

Let’s start with the biblical text and work backwards. When I enlisted to join the PA Army National Guard (“Roll on!”), we were sent off to “pre-basic” right before we shipped out to Ft. Sill, OK (and other places) for regular Army Basic Training. On the first night of pre-basic, after lights-out, nobody knew what to say or if they should say anything at all! All of us troops just lay there in our “racks” in silence. I thought about it for what seemed like an eternity, but after only a minute or two, there in the darkness, I decided to say the Lord’s Prayer…OUT LOUD!

My fear was that nobody would join me. And we were all feeling a little scared —- I’d call it a fear of the unknown about what was ahead of us—completely unfamiliar territory—as we were entering a new phase of life, a part of which would be dominated by Drill Sergeants…doing what Drill Sergeants do!!! (We had drill sergeants in pre-basic there at Ft. Indiantown Gap.) So as I began to recite the Lord’s Prayer, imagine my surprise when everyone else in our barracks chimed in, and 40-some men recited the prayer together!! I think it settled all our hearts that first night.

I did it because my desire was to be a good witness. And I did it because I suspected everyone else lying there in the dark held the same fears I had (their joining in the prayer affirmed this reality). However I DID NOT do it to demonstrate leadership. Yet in doing so, I would say that I discovered leadership. I unknowingly began to discover a principle of leadership, a principle defined in F3 as Individual Initiative (I2). As our workouts are always PEER-LED Individual Initiative (I2) comes to the forefront. Here’s a summary of what we must all do as leaders to instill and grow Individual Initiative:

1. A leader must teach what he knows
2. A leader must make clear the mission
3. A leader must reward I2 whenever and wherever he sees it. “Leaders always get more of what they reward and less of what they punish.”

I couldn’t have defined it that night way back in Nov. 1989 when I found myself leading 40 other [YOUNG] men in the Lord’s Prayer, but in inadvertently taking the initiative, I BEGAN to discover this critical principle of leadership which also applies in many areas of life; it IS that which helps to define each of us as HIGH IMPACT Men: INDIVIDIAL INITIATIVE! It doesn’t matter whether an opportunity arises at home, in the workplace, or in the community in which you serve…Take the initiative and lead!

COT:

• Number-Rama
• Name-O-Rama – naming of FNG
• Announcements: Rucking in Millsboro for Roving RuckF3st Friday, followed by Bible Study at the Country Kitchen
• Prayers: For Beau’s family as they grieve the loss of this little boy; for Gavin and a miracle to heal his spine; for Woodstock facing some big stuff today (details to be shared later). For all of the men in the circle to be intentional with Individual initiative today.

Good times getting after it with rucks. Awesome to see some growth at the Milford, DE AO The Gri[s]t Mill. As always, humbled to Q, but even more humbled to have an FNG join us who cared for YHC when hospitalized with the Rona. Again, welcome to F3 MacDaddy.

Chappie, out!