Army O-3 breaks mile record by 20 seconds
U.S. Army Capt. Travis Chewning-Kulick set a new mile run record at Ft. Hood Cavazos last Friday. In so doing, he shaved 20 seconds off the existing mark.
The official ruling from the Guinness World Records takes roughly six months to be confirmed, but multiple witnesses on hand reported his time, which was a third of a minute faster than the standing record.
“First lap, I probably went out a little too fast because I got excited with the crowd,” Chewning-Kulick told the Army after the record setting mile. “I found something that last 400 to bring it home.”
Twenty seconds… just wow. Okay, I know some of you are or were runners, and know that world records aren’t broken by that kind of margin, right? A few seconds is huge – in some events even a single full second is a pretty big hill to climb. So, twenty seconds? As the late great Mr. Harvey said, now for the rest of the story:
He did it wearing a bomb-disposal protective suit.
The EOD gear is no joke. A full bomb suit weighs approximately 50 pounds. That might not be as much as the amount of gear soldiers wear on patrol, but the nature of the bomb suit leaves a cumbersome fit. Layers of kevlar and other protective material leave limbs bulky. A large and heavy helmet can pull on the head at a run. Task & Purpose
Business Insider cites the suit as 62 pounds. Task & Purpose, as shown, says 50 pounds. Either way, more than I ever wanted to strap on for fun. That’s more than even those sumo-wrestler suits people like to dress in and mock-fight at parties. More from Task & Purpose:
Why? According to the Army, the captain did it to “demonstrate the physical and mental fortitude required of EOD technicians.” It was an idea planted by his old platoon sergeant. During one physical training session, the sergeant challenged him to try to break the record one day, Chewning-Kulick told the Killeen Daily Herald.
Although the run was all Chewning-Kulick, the overall event was a team effort. Other soldiers from 752nd Ordnance Company were on hand to help strap him into the heavy bomb protection suit, take data before the run, and track his speed, time and weight around the track. His senior enlisted advisor, 1st Sgt. Edwin Vazquez, ran the mile with him to help him keep pace. Prior to the officer’s record setting run, other EOD team leaders stationed at Fort Cavazos also put on bomb protection suits and ran a relay around the same track.
Senior Enlisted Advisor?
Regardless – sounds like a helluva accomplishment, and I suspect from the accompanying data, the 752nd probably has no morale issues.
British Army officer Mark Gibbs ran a 7 minute, 24 second mile in a bomb suit in December 2017, for a charity event. That record has stood for more than seven years, according to Guinness World Records.
By the way, I thought 20 seconds was a lot – here’s another tidbit from Business Insider’s report.
In 2021, Army Capt. Kaitlyn Hernandez shattered the women’s record, wearing what was said to be a 96-pound bomb suit. She ran a mile in 10 minutes and 23 seconds. The previous women’s record was 11 minutes and six seconds in 2013.
Takes me back to the ’80s in Germany when one of our NBC NCOs decided to prove MOPP-4 was not a deterrent to activity and rode his bicycle 25 miles onto post at rush hour. He said he got a LOT of honks and waves from the German commuters. But I have to say – MOPP-4 doesn’t weigh over 50 pounds, either. Props to ALL these fine EOD officers.
Category: Army
Bravo! That stuff looks heavy. At my age I’d be happy to run a seven minute mile in gym shorts.
The firefighters in our city have the rookies run the little 5k foot races that the town holds in full call out gear that is about 75 pounds. Most of the time it is a light jog, about a ten minute mile. Those guys are spanked by the end.
I walk 15 minute miles. That’s pretty fast moving for EOD with 50 lb suit in 7 min 4 sec. Did they mention the temp?
I’d hazard a guess that the temp inside the suit is gonna be pretty constant regardless of the outside temp.
High of 84 that day per a quick search.
At 7 plus decades, I am happy with a 26 minute mile and a half walk 3 times a week now.
I’m up to 2.5 miles @ 3.1 mph on my treadmill wile reading my tablet and music video’s on the big screen. Not to brag. Just say’n
I remember when I could walk a mile for a Camel.
You smoked me on that one
Respect!
Well done, sir. Well done.
I can see how someone might be motivated to run very fast wearing a bomb disposal suit.
Yeah, as the old saw goes, if you see EOD running, you’d better run, too!
As the morale patch says:
MOPP-4 might not weigh 50 lbs, but it does include the gas mask, so breathing ability is reduced.
As is visibility. Peripheral vision works poorly… ah, who needs that on a bicycle in a German rush hour.
Fort Cavazo ???
I’m a relative spring chicken at 46 and wear body armor for 10-15 hours a day throughout the week (I pulled over 64 hours this past week), but I don’t want to wear or carry that kind of weight anymore. Running with that weight? Absolutely not, unless there’s no option. Take into consideration the fact that the body can’t breathe in the protective suit–much like wearing MOPP 4 but with a bunch of extra weight–and it sounds like it takes a “special” sort to even want to make the attempt. Hell, one of my biggest gripes with the IVAS the first time I donned one as an Enlisted Advisor (EA) to that program in my final couple of years in uniform, I immediately started sweating and disliked the fact that my entire face and head lacked airflow. The female CPT trained at Fryar Stadium on Campbell: EOD soldier sets world record running a mile in a 96-pound bomb suit. In 2002, I had to make up a 12-mile tuck in Fryar Stadium (3/187 was in Afghanistan, so the Rear D NCOs had all non-Air Assault qualified Soldiers doing those and APFTs weekly, with the obstacle course and combat water survival training every 2-3 weeks as they could schedule the land and pool). Forty-eight laps aren’t fun, just as 12 laps on Fort McNair wasn’t much fun for my EIB road march a couple of years later. Fryar was also the name of my buddy who got shot in the barracks and survived minus a lung. He survived a .357 round only to go out in a head on collision nine years ago. Senior Enlisted Advisor (SEA) is the fancy term for anyone serving alongside a key officer. It used to be reserved for the highest positions, or when a diamond or star (1SG or CSM) wasn’t in the position, but it seems to be the popular term now. PEO Soldier has a couple of SMGs and some MSGs who are in such positions. I was an EA, though the SGM I worked with insisted I was an SEA since I… Read more »