Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Cannon airmen participate in 5k of the dead
Tech Sgt. Philip Smith, left, reaches for an airman's flag.
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — It’s not unusual for Cannon Air Force Base squadrons to do physical training on Fridays. What is unusual is when dozens of undead try to attack them along the way.
But that was the case during Friday morning’s zombie run. It featured over 350 airmen going for a run just over 5 kilometers while trying to escape the grasps of about 45 Clovis High School Junior ROTC students and other volunteers dressed as zombies.
“A lot of squadrons have come out to do this as mandatory PT, kind of put something fun on for their squadron, boost morale, stuff like that,” said 2nd Lt. Madeline Klasi with the Force Support Squadron, which helped organize the event. “We like to kind of switch it up and give people something different to do. And honestly it’s had a great feedback from everybody.”
Runners were each equipped with two flags around their waist — like flag-football players — and then loaded onto a bus before being told zombies had breached the area and they had to evacuate to escape infection.
Several zombies then broke loose from their cage at the starting line and others were stationed around the golf course on base to try to grab a flag and “infect” the airmen.
“We had some motivated and enterprising zombies considering they have no brain activity ... They were able to get me around the fourth or fifth hole but it was a lot of fun,” said John Forbes, commander of the Comptroller Squadron. Forbes was the first runner to finish the second 100-person heat, but not before losing both of his flags.
“I know they’re pretty bummed about missing school this morning, but we’re so happy to have them,” Klasi said of the AFJROTC students. “Their energy is infectious and we’re just so happy to have them out here, especially as zombies because they’re giving everybody a run for their money.”
Klasi said Lt. Col. Michael Stone, commander of the Force Support Squadron, loves Halloween, so he tasked Klasi with coming up with several Halloween-themed events, leading to the base’s first zombie run.
Klasi said events like the zombie run are crucial to building camaraderie between units and to spice up their day.
“It’s so important and that’s one of my favorite things about being a force support officer is being able to put on events that can make people smile and to kind of shake up their regular day-to-day tasking,” Klasi said.
