MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Feb. 27) – The Marine Corps’ primary mission is to win America’s battles. To win battles it must first make Marines. Every Marine will not have the opportunity to serve as a drill instructor at Parris Island or San Diego, but all Marines have the potential to serve in combat.  For this reason, all Marines must maintain combat fitness, whether on the front lines or in the rear with the gear.

“Combat fitness is ensuring that you’re ready at all times for any situation that demands mental and physical strength,” said Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Nettles, Tenant Activities Company gunnery sergeant, who served as the combat fitness instructor for Corporals Course 602-13, which graduated Feb. 22. “You need to prepare yourself physically for anything that may come your way and mentally to endure the pain that may come with it.”

The Corps understands that every Marine does not have full knowledge of how to maintain combat fitness, therefore there are programs set up to fill in the blanks.

Marine Corps Community Services offers resources for those who intend to increase their combat readiness, such as the new High Intensity Tactical Training Center, and unit physical training sessions that can be geared toward combat fitness, explosive power, powerful endurance or any ability a warfighter might need.

“The HITT program is fairly new,” said Brian Hancock, lead trainer at the Barber Physical Activity Center, who also serves as an instructor at the HITT center. “It’s been up and running since November and is our take on combat fitness training, including injury prevention, strength training, speed and agility. It’s all in there.”

            Throughout the bloody 237-year history of the Corps, Marines have fought, triumphed or fallen honorably, based on their level of combat fitness. Starting Training Day One at boot camp all the way until the moment the unexpected happens, all of the training a Marine does, or doesn’t do, will show in the extreme environment of combat.

“Combat conditioning and combat fitness are definitely two different things,” Nettles said. “You have to maintain a certain level of combat fitness and, if you are combat fit, then you are combat ready. Combat conditioning helps you get to that point.”

To cultivate combat fitness, an individual must dig deep and search within himself to hit all of the wickets in a way that works.

“You have to mix it up,” Nettles said. “For combat conditioning you need weight and cardiovascular training, and you need to keep your muscles and joints loose to prevent injury. With all of this, you need to tie it in with what you might be doing in a combat situation.”

According to Nettles, when lifting 30 pounds overhead repeatedly, one must identify why an exercise like this is important: In combat it may be an ammo can, or a fallen stone, or maybe even a fellow Marine’s gear.

“Every bit of combat conditioning is mental,” Nettles said. “You have to be prepared to push your body until it hurts. And when it hurts, keep pushing. If you’re not mentally prepared, then you will give up and never reach the goals you need to.”

            The HITT center, located atop the hill adjacent to Butler Stadium, is where Marines can attend classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to bolster their strength, speed and agility training regimens.

“It’s not just running to improve our 3-mile time,” Hancock said. “We want to be able to run that distance well, but also be able to cut and turn quickly, be agile, be strong and be able to do all of these things without getting hurt.”

The HITT program caters to active duty and reserve service members, however the time available for using the program may not match some unit’s availability.

Those interested in reaching a higher level of combat fitness, but are unable to attend the classes, can find many of the workouts, as well as video demonstrations and techniques on the new Marine Corps fitness website.

Taking a workout that focuses on a specific weak area may be the solution to the combat fitness problem or simply place a Marine above his peers in combat readiness.

Whatever the reason, the Marine Corps must maintain combat fitness regardless of grade or occupational specialty, as directed by our missions to make Marines and to win America’s battles.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a private or a field grade officer,” said Nettles. “There is no rank where combat fitness isn’t important.”

Correspondent: Paris.Capers@usmc.mil