WEBVTT

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my name is First Lieutenant Karen Adams .

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I am currently a registered dietitian .

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So I serve as the outpatient chief um

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chief of the nutrition clinic at Fort

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Leonard Wood home is a town south of

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boston called Attleborough

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massachusetts . I was feeling a little

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bit , a little bit anxious . Um You

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know terrain is huge , right ? So if

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you're working through the sand that's

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a lot harder than working on hard road .

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Um So distance terrain , weather and

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heat um you know , currently stationed

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in Missouri , so it's a little bit

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hotter here . So just kind of the

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unknown factors definitely put some

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anxiety in your mind but you just gotta ,

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you know have that resiliency to to

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push through and to know that you can

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finish across the finish line and it

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can be successful . They briefed us and

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said this is an individual graded event .

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So um none , none of us actually stayed

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together . I'm not tracking but maybe

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some of my teammates did . I think I'm

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still waiting on them to finish but no ,

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we ended up just kind of doing our own

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thing and and taking off my favorite

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part was the sunrise . Um It's really

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important to find distractions when

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you're rocking an unknown distance .

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Right ? So the sunrise over the

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mountains here at Fort Bliss was in a

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beautiful distraction for me . Um and

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it allowed me to kind of just look out

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on the horizon because I'm not really

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from an area that sees a lot of

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mountains . So I thought it was just a

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beautiful setting to be in complete

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feeling of relief because I really

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didn't know until I turned that corner

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right , That , that was the end of the

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ruck march . So , um , seeing all the

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cadre and seeing the vans and knowing

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that this is it . Um , I kind of just

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started running and I knew that I could

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make it that far and push through and

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it was a great feeling . That feeling

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is one of the best feelings ever . Um ,

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but also it comes with a lot of pain

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and stiffness , right ? But it comes

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with a sense of accomplishment . So ,

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you know , as as we talked about in med

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com , you can't save lives on the

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battlefield if you can't survive the

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battlefield . So finishing your

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bookmarks , you know , being sore

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feeling that pain , but knowing that

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you just put in some good work and some

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good training . It's a really good

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feeling . Um , I did some preparation ,

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I didn't do , I didn't do a 12 or 15

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mile prior to coming here . I did up to

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about 8-10 miles . Um , but I do rock

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pretty regularly . So it's something

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that I try to incorporate in my

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training , um , to try to stay ready

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for any advanced schools or anything

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like that . I think that overall this

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competition has been great . Um , it

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fosters a lot of spirit decor and

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morale building and um , meeting , you

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know , meeting soldiers from across all

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MTs in our region . So it's a great

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opportunity , It's been fun so far and

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I'm hoping we all just continue to push

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through because I don't know if the

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events are going to get any easier .

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My name is Commander Major john

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Castillo , I am the general uh General

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Leonard Wood . Army Community hospital

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commands are major out of Fort Leonard

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Wood Missouri . Yeah so we have six

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soldiers out here . We have an officer

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uh staff sergeant and junior N . C . O .

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S . And some junior soldiers that are

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out here taking on the challenge of

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trying to be uh the regional Health

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Command Central best leader winners

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this year . So we're fortunate that we

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have a lot of training assets and

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resources on Fort Leonard Wood . So we

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sent our soldiers to the range is a few

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times . Did the land navigation , they

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did water survival . Uh They did army w

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our army warrior task train up . Uh In

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addition to a lot of the other smaller

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things , a lot of a lot of road

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marching . A lot of P . T . Just to get

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these guys ready for this competition

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is extremely physical competition . Uh

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Lane they're pulling a lot of weight as

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they start . I think they step off with

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04 . It's a five hour limit . I know at

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least for sure . One of our competitors

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did really well . She came in second

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overall . So I'm extremely proud of her .

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Uh And the rest of the soldiers but it

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is very brutal . Although it's kind of

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windy . Uh It's a little cooler today

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uh , with the events that they've

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already done . It's just incremental uh ,

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challenge of just making sure that you

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stay hydrated and that you keep moving

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that way . You don't start to cramp up .

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Okay , So I equate reading this

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directly to people first . If you're

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taking care of your soldiers , if

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you're training them properly , if

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you're making sure that they're

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physically mentally spiritually ready

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to go wherever the army needs them to

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go . Uh , these competitions are tied

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directly into that . Again , we've

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identified some leaders in our

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formations , uh , some young , some old

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that are out here taking on this

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challenge . Again voluntarily . They

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proved themselves to be the best of the

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best of my organization . So now they

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get to pit themselves against 13 other

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military uh treatment facilities and

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public health and dental health

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commands to see who's the best . So

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again , I think if you're taking care

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of your soldiers , if you're pushing

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them to be ready , I think that's ,

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that's people . First . To me , I

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believe our team is extremely motivated .

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We have two soldiers from our nutrition

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care division who I think has stepped

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forward over these last six months to

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take on the challenge at the

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organizational level uh , to put

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themselves in the position to have

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earned the opportunity to come out here .

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Again , our junior soldiers really

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motivated . They understand

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significance of testing themselves and

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of , of coming to competitions like

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this as it's going to help them in the

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long run with career progression . I'm

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proud of our team uh , so far , I know

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that they're out here , uh , and again ,

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they stepped up and took on the

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challenge . And I'm looking forward to

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the results .