Mann instills his philosophy through Officer PT

Spc. Jason Stadel
108th ADA Bde. Public Affairs

Capt. David Thompson, 555th Maint. commander, urges his team on during combat ready PT.

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Train to fight, teamwork, and building camaraderie is the philosophy of the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade Commander, Col. David Mann. Mann has been instilling his philosophy with officers throughout the brigade during physical training sessions.

The 108th ADA officers have gone on runs, road marches, and done litter carries. “These junior leaders need to know you can have mentally and physically challenging PT, and also have fun doing it,” Mann said.

With the PT sessions, Mann hopes to promote camaraderie within in the brigade and give ideas to the officers to take back to their batteries and companies. “You don’t have to do sit ups and push ups everyday,” he said.
The latest task for officers was a competition that included a combination of road marching and litter carries. They were broken into teams of six had to road march for a mile and a half. At the turn around point, the team had to pick up a litter and carry one team member the entire way back. The march looked to be grueling, but Mann said it pays off in the end. “It was a challenge, but in the end I think it was fun.”

Mann said he hopes that the brigade officers will take alternative types of PT back to their Soldiers. “At the end of the day we want physically and mentally tough Soldiers,” he said.