SOTO CANO AIR BASE, Honduras –
Joint Task Force- Bravo's Medical Element (MEDEL) hosted the first-ever "MEDEL Olympics," Nov 23 here. Four teams participated, including teams from the Army Forces Battalion (ARFOR), the 612th Air Base Squadron (ABS), and two teams from MEDEL.
"The purpose of this event was to have something that involved some medical skills and yet were fun activities other units could get involved in," said U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Angela Betts, the S-1 Non-Commissioned Officer in charge at MEDEL. "It turned out really well and the participation was outstanding, especially as this was the first MEDEL Olympics. Hopefully the unit that replaces us will continue this tradition."
The teams participated in three events. The first was an ultimate relay, which consisted of a water balloon toss, a three-legged race, a baseball bat spin, a bandage quick change race, and thawing out a frozen t-shirt.
The second event consisted of six team members pulling a field litter ambulance (FLA) 50 meters for the fastest time.
The last event was a litter relay, during which four members of the team had to strap three full water cans, weighing 120 pounds total, onto a litter and high crawl with the litter, run up and down a steep hill, go across a barrier and then load the litter into the FLA. Another team of four had to complete the course from the FLA back to the starting point, and finally, the team had to transfer the water bottles to a SKED Rescue System and where two people then pulled the water bottles for 100 meters.
Points were received based on ranking for each of the three events, and the team with the most points won. MEDEL took home the first place trophy, while ARFOR and the 612th ABS tied for second. Fourth place went to the other MEDEL team.
"I think the events were fun and challenging. There were points where you could not help but laugh at people, especially when they were doing the bat spin and trying to thaw out the frozen t-shirt," said U.S. Army Sergeant Loreon Cuffee a patient administrative noncommissioned officer from MEDEL. "My team did a great job and I was really thrilled to be the leader of such a great team and to bring the MEDEL Olympics trophy home to MEDEL."