As my battle buddy, DS Robertson, blogged about how busy is was yesterday at the Army booth, today was no different.  The engagement each exhibitor had with each person is a lasting impression on how they view the Army and the military.  It is one Army, from Army Recruiters, Army Educators, Army ROTC, and Army Drill Sergeants (if I forgot someone, you are a part of this too), each individual had a chance to engage, share Army stories, where they are from and what  have you. 

At the start of the morning, it started kind if slow and quickly picked up pace.  You had myself and DS Grabener on the pull up bars, DS Schwendeman and DS Peffer on the push-up competition, DS Semsick on the team building challenge and DS Robertson handing out Army goodies for push-ups, pull-ups, and the team building challenge.  I work with an excellent group of Drill Sergeants.  We feed off each others energy, and everything works like clock work.  It is what that Army is all about, team work. 

I had the opportunity to count 22 pull-ups for a young individual out of Missouri, Cody.  I was pushing him all the way.  Doing pull-ups is not easy compared to chin-ups, and knocking out 22 was very impressive.  He was our winner for the Army Jacket that was presented by LTC Stewart:

As we rotated events, I also had the opportunity of counting push-ups for a young individual out of South Dakota, Trevor, knocking out 92 push-ups in one minute.  He won an Ipod, nice!

We also had a young lady from Tennessee, Renee, who knocked out 60 push-ups in one minute and also won an Ipod, awesome!!!

Each individual, whether, male or female, had the opportunity of representing their state by doing the most pull-ups, or by doing the most push-ups in one minute.  Some have the strength to do it, others are not too sure, but that is why we are here, to let them know that they can do it, that they have the self-confidence to make it happen, we are not going to let you fail, and if you can't do it, at least give it an effort to achieve that obstacle.  At the end of the day, you can tell yourself, that you were able to do it.  One young man told me he could only do three push-ups, but ended up doing fifteen, that is twelve more than what he thought he could do.  While I was counting push-ups for another kid, he taps me on the shoulder and says, "Thanks"!  That made me feel accomplished.  I motivated him to achieve more than what he could do, and that is what matters!