Oct 20, 2008 by Stars and Stripes

Franklin Fisher

Osan Camp Helps Airmen Lose Weight, Shape up to Stay in Service

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Senior Airman Gabe Groshong, an overweight airman who faced dismissal from the Air Force if he flunked his fitness test one more time, is pleased to say that he is still in the military. And he doesn’t mind that he had to buy some new clothes.

Groshong, 25, of Lancaster, Pa., made it through "PT Boot Camp" here not long ago and emerged 17 pounds lighter and very relieved.

And Groshong is so pleased with the results that he’s right back in the boot camp — this time as a volunteer — for a six-week session that Osan launched Oct. 14.

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"If I had failed this PT test at the end of the boot camp, I would have actually gotten kicked out of the Air Force … and gone back to the civilian life, which I wasn’t looking forward to," he said.

Groshong, of the 303rd Intelligence Squadron, said he passed thanks to the intensive, six-week course he and three dozen other airmen puffed and sweated their way through here over the summer.

Osan’s fitness center staff developed the boot camp — running, push-ups, sit-ups, lots of other exercises, and nutrition classes — mainly to help airmen with low or failing scores on their annual Air Force fitness test. They met an hour a day, four days a week.

Such boot camps are not mandated by the Air Force, but individual bases can organize them if they choose, officials said.

Under Air Force rules, airmen get four attempts at passing the annual fitness test, said Tech. Sgt. Tarn Sanger, one of the fitness center’s boot camp instructors.

"If you don’t pass those four chances, then it’s at commander’s discretion and you can be, basically, booted out of the military," Sanger said.

But of the more than 30 airmen who went through the boot camp, Groshong was the only one who was down to his last try, Sanger said.

Only 5 feet 6 inches, Groshong went into the boot camp with a waist that bulged past 40 inches. He wanted to lose 4 to 5 inches and improve his test scores. Airmen are timed on push-ups, sit-ups and running.

The Air Force had already placed Groshong in its Fitness Improvement Program, which meant he had to get fit and pass the test or face a return to civilian life.

"At first, going through the program was really hard," he said. "I wasn’t in shape at all. We had to run in our flak vest and carry 15-pound bars every day.

"My body was not used to that at all. I thought about dropping out."

But things got easier as the weeks passed.

"The instructors were really motivating … They were: ‘Hey, you can do it. You can do it.’ And that was very helpful," Groshong said.

When it ended in late July, he’d cut about four minutes off his 1.5-mile run time, getting it to 12 minutes, 37 seconds. He did 45 push-ups in one minute, up from a previous 35, and 42 sit-ups in a minute, up from about 35. And his weight was down to 197 pounds. Sanger said other airmen lost an average of eight to 12 pounds and also improved their test scores.

"It was very successful," said Sanger. Osan launched a second six-week boot camp last week.

"When I passed," Groshong said, "my reaction was: ‘Thank God. I’m so happy right now.’ I went home and called my mom."

Just before the boot camp, Groshong had bought a suit.

"So after boot camp, I had to go down and get it refitted, so that it would fit me again … . Nobody wants to spend money on new clothes," he said. "But if you lose weight, it’s always a nice reward to go out and buy new clothes for yourself."

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