As you’re dishing up your big Thanksgiving meal, be sure to save room for this big ol’ helping of motivation.
Gen. Eric M. Smith, the 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps, dropped a quick video on Thanksgiving eve with clips of him completing his annual Combat Fitness Test, a grueling series of physical events that every Marine — from privates to four-star generals — must complete every year.
Not mentioned in the video is that Smith completed the intensive fitness test 324 days after open heart surgery, which he underwent after suffering near-fatal cardiac arrest while on a run.
Smith had the surgery on Jan. 8 to “repair a bicuspid aortic valve in his heart, which was the cause of his cardiac arrest,” the Marine Corps said at the time.
But he was fit to fight on Nov. 27, knocking out a CFT and delivering a Thanksgiving message.
“Hey Marines, it’s Gen. Smith, the Commandant,” Smith says in the short video. “I just got done running my Marine Combat Fitness Test and I hope you’ve run yours. It’s getting late in the year and everybody owes a CFT by the end of the year. Good luck to you when you’re running yours and Happy Thanksgiving.’
On Oct. 29, 2023, Smith was just completing a three-mile run and was nearing his home at Marine Barracks Washington, when he collapsed. Bystanders found him and called 911, and performed CPR while they waited for firefighters to arrive, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
Smith had suffered cardiac arrest, but the quick actions of the bystanders and quick delivery to an emergency room saved his life. After recovering, he underwent open heart surgery to repair a valve in his heart in January and was back at work March 5.
Still, getting back to a job at the Pentagon is one thing. The eight-event Marine CFT is definitely something else.
Though regular monitored exercise is recommended as part of recovery from cardiac arrest, the CFT is a grueling series of events meant to simulate movements and physical challenges Marines might encounter in combat.
Marines do the test in a full Combat Utility Uniform including boots, beginning with an 880-yard sprint, usually on a track.
Second is the “ammunition lift,” in which troops like a 30-pound ammo can overhead, locking out their elbows on each rep, as many times as possible in a set time.
Finally, is the “maneuver under fire” event, a 300-yard course that includes crawling, ammunition resupply, throwing a grenade, agility running, and finally dragging and then fireman’s-carrying a fellow Marine as a “casualty.”
Smith’s ascension to the role of Commandant was at the center of a political fight in the Senate in 2023. Smith was confirmed in late September of that year when Senate leaders brought his name, along with two other pending service chiefs, to the floor of the body for confirmation, a move that skipped over an administrative hold on general officers put in place by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).
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