Air Force pararescueman crowned Strongest Man at Bagram Airfield

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. John Jung
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  It was not a hulking mass of humanity that won the Strongest Man at a Bagram Airfield competition, but a soft-spoken Air Force staff sergeant, whose mission in life is to save life.

Staff Sgt. Keith Aussant is a pararescueman with the 56th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron at Bagram Airfield, and of the 22 male participants who competed for the coveted title, he was crowned the best of the best.

The weight-lifting event is sponsored quarterly by Air Force Central Services, but is open to all armed forces servicemembers, civilians, contractors and coalition partners at BAF.

Sergeant Aussant, weighing in at 194 pounds, lifted a total of 1,285 pounds in the three categories - squat (460 lbs.), bench press (320 lbs.) and dead lift (505 lbs.).

"I didn't do anything radically different for this competition that my usual training regime as a pararescueman," said the five-year Air Force veteran from Dighton, Mass. "About two weeks out from the competition, I started to watch what I ate more closely, but that's about it.

"Each of my lifts was a personal record for me," he said. "It wouldn't have mattered to me if I won or lost the competition. I was just content to do my personal best."

Sergeant Aussant and his fellow pararescuemen are deployed from the 38th Rescue Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. Another member of his home unit, Staff Sgt. Josh Andrada also participated in the competition.

"The title Strongest Man at BAF is a testimony to Sergeant Aussant's hard work," said the five-year Air Force veteran from Boston. "A lot of guys don't lift with the proper form or they try with really heavy weights, but Sergeant Aussant wasn't trying to impress anyone and he still won by 30 points and just blew them [the competition] away. He was a real big supporter and motivator for me."

To determine the winner, the scores of all participants are compared against one another in three categories and then tabulated using the Schwartz formula. Using this standard formula, the cumulative weight lifted is multiplied by a coefficient related to the athlete's body weight. The resulting factor is the Schwartz formula total. The competitor with the highest SFT is crowned the winner.

A simple way to understand the formula is the following example. "If two people lift the exact same amount of weight, the one who weighs the least would be the winner," said Travis Luethe, recreation manager.

Sergeant Aussant's winning SFT scores now go on to the Strongest Man in the AOR competition to try and make a claim for that title.