MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- A total of 375 Marines and sailors with Marine Wing support Squadron 171 got together for camaraderie building at the MWSS-171 2nd Annual Sports Day at the IronWorks Gym here March 12.
The main goal of the 2nd Annual Sports Day isn’t to win or beat another team down; its troop welfare.
“We accomplish the mission on a daily basis and oftentimes we tend to not take time out for ourselves,” said Gunnery Sgt. Aaron Gray, MWSS-171 family readiness officer.
The day-long event was such a success last year it was brought back into the picture this year with only a few changes.
“This year we had to change the venue due to a new policy being enforced to protect our fields around the base,” said Gray. “We had less than 48 hours to plan an alternate course of action due to inclement weather, so I think we adapted pretty well.”
Last year’s event was held at the South-side obstacle course along with the Penny Lake sports fields, but due to the weather, MWSS- 171 held their entire event in the IronWorks Gym.
The events held at the sports day took up all three courts simultaneously. The events were a blow-up obstacle course from Marine Corps Community Services, basketball, volleyball, ultimate dodge ball, dizzy izzy relays, push-up/ crunch relays, fireman’s carry relays, full-court suicide relays and a half-court shootout.
The sports were by no means individual events. MWSS-171 was broken up into teams of individual companies within their command, and each company had one team for each event.
The teams were Airfield Operations Company, Engineer Operations Company, Headquarters & Service Company and Motor Transport Operations Company. Although the companies were different sizes, their competitiveness was equal.
Each team chose individual Marines and sailors to compete in each event as the rest of the Marines and sailors cheered them on. “It’s good to see the Marines out here getting into competition, watching them put out and have a good time,” said Sgt. Maj. Blake Smith, MWSS-171 sergeant major. Sgt. Maj.
Smith was involved in the competition just like any of the other Marines and sailors of MWSS-171 as he ducked, dipped and dove during the dodgeball event.
“Rank doesn’t really matter,” said Sgt. Travis Eno, heavy equipment operator for MWSS-171. “It’s about building a unity between 171.”
Marines with Engineer Operations Company almost ran away with the competition, winning almost every event.
“Engineers have more people to choose from, so we pretty much blew everyone away,” said Eno.
Each competition was worth four points for the winner, three for second, two for third and one for last place. This event has proven to be such a success it is now scheduled to be an annual event.
“The Marines and sailors like doing things that are not only motivating and traditional, but also fun and entertaining,” said Gray. “There is nothing better than taking a day off of work and indulging in fun activities while building unit cohesion and camaraderie.”