MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT (AUG. 29, 2012) -- Marines with Marine Air Control Squadron 2 Detachment B from Marine Corps Air Station New River traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point to participate in a field meet competition, Aug. 29.
The competition began with MACS 2 competing against other squadrons in a 400 meter relay race around a baseball field in less than perfect conditions, with Marines sliding around corners and falling in the slippery mud behind each corner.
Immediately afterwards the Marines competed in a fireman’s carry competition that began with the grunts of Marines possibly wishing they had chosen lighter partners or at least hoping they weren’t wearing their good trousers because of the inevitable sliding in the mud that was to come.
Gunnery Sgt. Eric Pittman, MACS 2 Detachment B operations chief, said that the importance of this field meet was deeper than just camaraderie.
“These guys get to meet everyone that they normally don’t get to meet,” said Pittman “It’s important because of the coming deployment to Afghanistan.”
Several other events were held during the field meet including a tire flip competition using a 200-pound tire and flipping it 100 feet.
Cpl. Samuel Lawes, an Individual Maintenance Readiness List Asset Manager with MACS 2 said that the tire flip competition was the hardest event at the meet.
“That thing was heavy,” said Lawes. “The last two flips were the hardest, and yeah I wanted to quit but I pushed through.”
After tallying the score of all the combined events the winner of the event would be decided by a tug-of-war competition.
MACS 2, with a combined effort were able to literally pull out the win, dragging their opponents across the designated line of victory in less than 15 seconds.
With the last pull of the rope and victory declared the spectators blasted their applause and cheers for MACS 2, who was presented with the Commanders Cup, the award that goes to the winning squadron, which had been held by the Low Altitude Air Defense squadron for almost 5 years in a row.
“I definitely would go next time,” said Lawes. “People really got to know each other and overall, the event went about as smoothly as it could.”