The Marine Corps wants to keep combat Marines fit and ready to roll. This week staff writer Gidget Fuentes tells you how:
Sprained ankles, busted knees, torn ligaments and backaches are no strangers to infantrymen, whether they're downrange or training in garrison. Long humps hauling heavy gear over rough terrain can tax and sideline even the toughest grunts.
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With hopes of reducing such injuries, and keeping combat Marines fit and ready to roll, the Marine Corps wants to assign professional athletic trainers to each of its infantry battalions. The proposal would be funded with $3 million from the Marine Corps' budget request for fiscal 2013, said Navy Cmdr. Steven Parks, the medical programs officer in the Ground Training Division at Training and Education Command in Quantico, Va. He outlined the plan in May during the Navy-Marine Corps Combat Operational Stress Control conference here in San Diego.
The plan is part of a Corpswide effort to prevent injuries and speed recovery of injured personnel assigned to the operating forces. It follows a model of looking at Marines as professional athletes, and that means keeping them healthy, rehabbing them from injuries and getting them fit for duty with the help of professionals who are skilled in strength and conditioning, as well as injury prevention.
It's a hallmark of the new Marine Total Fitness concept, officials said.
Read Gidget's full story here.
