Eighteen men defeated the fartsack and came out in the gloom to honor LCPL Skip Wells, USMC this morning.

Warmarama- We don’t need no stinking warmarama, let’s get after it!

The THANG- we started with an abbreviated “Gas Station Ready” workout, bows and knees! First we threw left and right elbows followed by a sprawl, x20, and then we threw left and right knees, followed by a sprawl, x20.

Next was an “indian” style run. The lead man rifle carried a concrete filled PVC coupon, and passed it back to the next PAX, and so on, until the last PAX received the coupon, whereupon he promptly delivered it back to the front of the line and passed it back in turn. We continued running until each PAX had a turn running the coupon back up to the front.

Q Note: If there are more than eight men, use an additional coupon for every six beyond that number.

We then reported to the epicenter of Murph City. The PAX counted off and paired up. They then performed Maaco Murphees* (x5), partnered inverted rows (x10), ran to the base of the hill where the flag was posted and performed 15 Merkins, and then to the top of the hill and performed 20 squats.

We made it through 2 cycles of this before the Q (YHC) prematurely gesticulated, calling the PAX back to the epicenter, whereupon we performed 5 minutes of dead hangs/planks. The Pax would dead hang for as long as possible, and when their feet hit the ground they immediately went into a plank. Once there were openings on the bars again it was back to dead hangs. Five minutes of this was more than enough!

Because the Q screwed up his own plan, he had to improvise, so we circled up in the grass for some Mary, most of which focused on core work. There we did flutter kicks, crunchy frogs, American hammers, Freddy Mercuries, Monkey Humpers, LBCs, V-Ups (or something like that), Penguin crunches (or something like that) and maybe some more stuff that YHCs tired brain can’t recall.

We then circled back up at the flag for the final count-off and namearama. In stead of the typical 6^th man, YHC read the following to the PAX concerning LCPL Wells:

Marine Lance Corporal Squire ‘Skip’ Wells, from Marietta GA was a graduate of Sprayberry High School. Skip was tragically killed in the July 16th, 2015 terrorist attack in Chattanooga, TN along with four other service men. Skip was also very active in the Sprayberry NJROTC which lead him to join the military as a member of the United States Marines.

On July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tenn., killed four U.S. Marines and wounded another military member and a police officer in shootings at a military recruitment center and a Navy and Marine reserve center Thursday morning.

Prior to the attack, Lance Cpl. Wells was swapping text messages Thursday with his girlfriend of 2 1/2 years, excited that she had booked a flight to visit him in Chattanooga after months apart. The final two words in the text would be the last she’d ever hear from him. “ACTIVE SHOOTER,” he wrote.

Five people, excluding the gunman, died in the shootings. They included four U.S. Marines who died at the scene and one U.S. Navy sailor who died at a hospital two days later. All of them were shot at the U.S. Navy Reserve center, one inside a building and the other four at a nearby motor pool area. The victims all attempted to distract the gunman, returned fire, and assisted people in climbing a fence to safety. Some of the victims died while returning fire at Abdulazeez, providing cover for a larger group of potential victims who were escaping over a fence. They were identified as:

Name    Age        Hometown         Branch  Rank

Carson A. Holmquist       25           Grantsburg, Wisconsin  Marine Corps     Sergeant

Randall Smith     26           Paulding, Ohio   Navy      Logistics specialist second class

Thomas J. Sullivan            40           Springfield, Massachusetts          Marine Corps     Gunnery sergeant

Squire K. “Skip” Wells     21           Marietta, Georgia            Marine Corps     Lance corporal

David A. Wyatt  37           Russellville, Arkansas     Marine Corps     Staff sergeant

We honor them all. YHC chose Skip specifically because he was a local, and he attended the same schools as YHC and my children, and graduated high school with my youngest son.

Prayer requests included One Scoop, his family and his sister Shara, Stopwatch, Hooch, Sharipova and his M, and a friend of Scotchguard’s undergoing heart surgery. YHC is pretty sure there were others mentioned but again, memory fails. We know that the Sky Q will not forget them, thankfully.

NMM: This was YHC’s second Q, and it was again an honor to lead such a great group of men in an endeavor to get stronger. The fact that we were honoring fallen heroes who died in service to this great nation added immeasurably to the experience. I would like to personally thank each and every man who posted this morning!