MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Marines assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 12 competed against each other in a field meet in celebration of the Marine Corps birthday at Penny Lake here Nov. 6.
Teams from MAG-12, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (All Weather) 533 and VMFA(AW)-242 participated in a total of nine events throughout the morning.
Marines started off the field meet with a motivational run around the base early that morning.
“Today isn’t meant to be forced fun,” said Col. Steven Nitzschke, the MAG- 12 commanding officer. “It’s supposed to be fun.”
After arriving at Penny Lake, Marines kicked off the day’s events with own-the-bone, dizzy-izzy, team push-ups, casualty drag and stretcher races.
During the last half of the morning, participants competed in earth ball, soccer, ultimate frisbee and tug-ofwar.
Members of MALS-12 were feeling pretty confident during earth ball, and their confidence proved true after they beat MAG-12 and won the earth ball portion of the field meet.
As Marines waited for other events to finish, they gathered around and had a few friendly bouts of grappling.
As ultimate frisbee finally came to an end, and Marines prepared for the final competition of tug-of-war, MALS-12 led the competition by one point ahead of VMFA-533.
“We have to win (tug-of-war) to win the competition,” said Cpl. Gregory Banks, an aviation jet mechanic with VMFA-533.
“Pull, pull, pull,” screamed VMFA-533 as their executive officer Maj. Leo J. Cannon crawled through the grass as his team’s anchor while they truggled to beat MAG-12.
Just when they thought they were done, VMFA-533 had to go one more time to either tie with MALS-12 or to take home first place.
533 pushed just enough to win the final event and win the competition.
The exhausted Marines gathered around into a school circle for the announcement of the official winner.
It was no surprise when 533 was given the trophy after keeping the lead through nearly the entire competition.
Nitzschke reminded everyone that the reason they were all out there was to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday.
“I love each and every one of you, even the Navy,” he joked. “Happy birthday again, Marines.”