Morning Show Challenge: Army National Guard

by Phil McIlrath, KDLT News
October 05, 2012 9:45 AM


To be a member of the armed forces takes guts, physical strength, and mental toughness. The anchors of KDLT News Today somehow thought they might be able to do it, so they gave it a try. Little did they know they were in a for a very rude awakening.

From the get go we might have been over our heads. To join the South Dakota Army  National Guard you must first go through the Recruit Sustainment Program, a sort of  pretest to basic training.  Our welcome present:the uniform. After a quick change,  we emerge shedding our civilian look for one of uniformity.
Little do we know what is about to happen next.

We eventually "fall In" and from the start learn that there is much more to standing in line at attention than just standing up straight.

After learning some basic commands, we warm up. We learn a system of stretches, lunges and aerobic exercises to wake up our bodies and our senses. The hardest to master was the high jumper.  But this was nothing, we were getting warn out and this was just the warm up portion, the hardest was about to begin.
    
After getting our PT Belts, we're signed in and about to start the physical test.

First up are the push ups, we have two minutes to do as many as we can push out. Between the girls and me a  passing score would be around 20.
    
First is Kelly, from the start, push ups Army style is no easy task.

With a lot of effort Kelly gets out about 6 that counted. Next, Meagan and myself take a crack at it. Meagan has to be the only person I know who smiles during an intense workout, but we aren't smiling at the results, we both fail this portion of the test,far below the number needed to pass.

But if we thought that was tough, our next test makes that look like a walk in the park.

After getting instructions, Kelly crunches down and gets going. After two minutes, Meagan and myself get at it and from the get going find out that maybe we should have trained for this. After about 50 seconds, I'm completely gone.
    
The Ladies all do better than me, but we still all fail this portion.

But now, time for the third leg. The Two mile run.

Two miles, in under 13 minutes. A task for anyone,but especially for us fine specimens of the morning circuit.

We're off. At Turn one, we're still together, but soon we drift apart. Kelly the best at running keeps a good pace while the rest of us space out.

At the half-mile point Kelly is still holding strong, Meagan is doing good at Second and for me...I'm wondering what made me think this was a good idea.

Halfway done now and Kelly is still holding her own, while the rest of us hitch a ride to catch up, but we just needed a short breather and we're back at it.

Kelly finishes great, a trooper, and because of a little cheating Meagan and myself are not too far behind.

As you can see, just the baby steps of getting into the military are no easy feat. It takes dedication, mental toughness, physical strength and America's best to defend our nation.
    
Be thankful America,  you won't be seeing us in fatigues anytime soon.