"We're About What Happened on 9/12"
ALF Folks: It was an honor to serve F3's MIP and Charlotte Rescue Mission this morning, for a workout of men from F3Nation, both within and without the Charlotte Rescue Mission Rebound program. As is tradition in F3, a "backblast" after-action report is posted after each workout; with the F3 web site having technical difficulties today, we're using this space today for this important purpose.
33 men gathered for a 60-or-so minutes of beatdown and remembrance.
Here's what they did to get stronger, in body, mind, and spirit:
Mosey from CRM toward Romare Bearden Park, with plank-o-rama and lunge-walks along the way to collect the pax; Neil Young's Let's Roll provided the soundtrack;
Stopping at the corner of 4th & Graham for some COP, including SSH (in cadence x 40, one for each of the innocent lives lost upon Flight 93) and Copperhead Squats;
Mosey to RBP where we took about 8 minutes for quiet reflection among the 2,977 flags planted in commemoration.
As we collected following, we found the three short ledges at the corner of Fourth & Mint, and conducted 343 step-ups (one for each of the firefighters lost on that day, most of whom were climbing stairs toward the burning steel and gasoline when the respective towers collapsed);
Mosey to Truist Field, where we walked a lap around the interior concourse and watched the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb (many of the participants in full fire gear);
Gathered at the Truist Field main gate for lunge walks in place to collect the Pax;
Mosey to Bank of America Stadium, for LBCs x 60 (one for each police officer lost on 9/11);
To the Keep Pounding tunnel, for a 3-minute wall squat while Garth Brooks' The Dance 9/11 Montage played;
Mosey - AYG for some - back to the Rescue Mission for COT.
All-in- all, we put in 2.03 miles. A handful of photos (no faces of Rescues per CRM policy) are posted here.
Moleskin:
This was a morning of remembrance and of some sorrow. While we commemorated and remembered the horror, the evil, and the loss that was suffered on 9/11, we tried to pay special focus on the way our country responded on 9/12. "When Americans lend a hand to one another, nothing is impossible," said Jeff Parness, founder of New York Says Thank You. "We're not about what happened on 9/11. We're about what happened on 9/12."
We reflected on the symbolism of twisted and melted metal. Of steel beams, and high-rises, and aircraft engines destroyed on that day. But we returned on focus to the true symbolism of 9/11, that: "As iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another."
We reflected on the way, on the afternoon of 9/11 there was no race, creed, orientation: there was one human and American and global family of men and women, something we aim to replicate every day in our lives within and without F3.
We reflected on the HIM and HIW aboard Flight 93, who provided the first wave of our nation's response to 9/11, before even the most ready-alert of units could get their boots on -- charging the cockpit and savings the lives of countless and the symbolism of our nation's Capitol.
And we did so, repeating the mantra that were the last known words of Todd Beamer, on his call with telephone operator Lisa Jefferson:
Are you guys ready? Let's roll...
