Misawa colonel scores 100 on four fitness tests

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sasha A. Navarro-Schmidt
  • Air Force News Det 12
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  He's one of a handful of Airmen at Misawa who scored a perfect 100 on his last physical fitness test. But he decided to take things a step further by scoring 100 on his last four fitness tests, using the standard for males, ages 25 and under. Colonel Arnold Holcomb is 48 and is the 35th Mission Support Group commander here.

"I just want to do the best I can," the colonel said. "Excellence is defined by AFI10-248 as a passing score in my age category, and I have exceeded that. I want to keep raising the bar on myself so that I continue to improve."

Fitness is an everyday mission for Colonel Holcomb. Even though he supervises more than 2,600 Airmen on a daily basis, he finds time in his schedule to squeeze in a workout. He even works out on the weekends with his wife, Mary Holcomb, also 48, and their 7-year-old son Collin.

Mrs. Holcomb is used to hearing how her husband motivates his troops.

"I get a lot of feedback all the time when I'm at the gym from the people who are lifting," she said. "He really does try to encourage everyone to stay fit and to do their best."

Every year during National Physical Fitness Month in May, the colonel sends out fitness and health articles to his troops through e-mail.

Colonel Holcomb is motivated to stay fit and healthy for many reasons, and he finds inspiration from others he's met throughout his career.

"I was deployed with a senior airman last year, and this young man was able to lose 80 pounds in five months while he was deployed," he said. "I was excited and very pleased to learn through an e-mail I received from him about a month ago that he scored 100 on his PT test. I could sense the excitement in the email."

Colonel Holcomb is changing assignments this summer, but plans to run the Air Force fitness test here one more time. Even though he cranked-out 61 crunches, 72 push-ups and ran a 9: 29 minute mile-and-a-half, he feels that he can improve his runtime. Just one more example of how this colonel is raising the bar for Airmen everywhere.