RED Friday is YHC’s favorite workout. Many of the PAX have always believed this was because it was the most intense workout of the week. While that is true (or was since the inception of Fury), I have some very deep and personal reasons. Today, I unleashed the fury – no pun intended – of what can happen when a guy who loves high volume chipper workouts with a very personal hero.
I arrived in Afghanistan on December 15, 2008 and was sent to the southern command hub of Kandahar. Not far from Kandahar is a small FOB known as Camp Lindsey. It was a treacherous three-mile journey that required some heavy hitting gangstas watching your six. Fortunately for YHC, there were some very hard hitting gangstas watching the six on 2/24/2009. We were heading over to Lindsey and had to traverse a nasty pass that provided lots of high ground for the little bastards who like to saw off heads.
Well, on that fateful day, some of those little bastards found their way to the top of the mountain to harass some of God’s chosen. Let me back up a little bit to explain why this particular day was so sad. We played cards every night. Not much else for entertainment is sand-laden shithole. There were nine of us who played every night. Didn’t take very long for that group to be whittled down to just two. Four of those men were lost on 2/24/2009.
So, there we were under heavy fire from a gaggle of little bastards and we were more than outnumbered. And these jokers somehow knew we were coming and prepped our means of egress from the area. I wish I could recount every detail of that day. The truth is I remember very little. I remember a very few specific things and those are recounted often in the pre-gloom hours when I am alone with the memories of great men taken too soon.
- Scott B. Stream, 39
- Daniel J. Thompson, 24
- Schuyler B. Patch , 25
- Brian M. Bunting, 29
Those four men saved my bacon that day, especially Scott. And it cost him his life. It was less than 10 seconds from the time he ran up beside me and said, “Get the $%@! outta here, dude!” to the time he was vaporized by an IED planted by the stupid little bastards.
We do hero WODs every Friday, but they have always been ones developed by CrossFit or other ones found by searching the web. YHC decided it was long overdue that we honor some of the men who will never be the subject of a movie. Here’s what I came up with:
“STREAM”
5 Rounds for Time
- 10 pullups
- 20 burpees
- 30 thrusters
- 40 KB Swings
- 50 box jumps
- 400m run
We counted up and said our names. Sugar, MeterMaid and Alpo will forever make sure that I don’t forget that again. Still love you guys!
We prayed for some folks, especially the men and women who have been killed and continue to serve this great nation.
YHC is very thankful for Sugar, MeterMaid and SlowPitch for being patient, enduring this workout and watching me shed a few tears. I had a blast hanging with you guys, but not like they do in the sandbox!
Jugz out