Another Deadlift story from my past

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Keith Wassung

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As I was typing in my high school dead lift story a few days ago, it reminded me of another dead lifting story that I thought I would share. In 1985, I was stationed in Charleston, SC in the U.S. Navy and the base sports director suggested I submit an application to attend the Navy Power lifting Camp and then compete in the All-Navy Championships and then from there the Armed Forces Championships. It was a comprehensive package, had to include copies of meet results, photos, letters from my CO, letters from meet directors, essentially you had to document that you were qualified to attend the camp and then the tryouts for the team. I was accepted and flew out to Port Hueneme, CA at the Pt. Magu Naval Air Station where the camp was being held. There were about 40 lifters that had been invited and they arrived over about a two day period. I was the second one there and I showed up at the base gym and met with the host director, got my room assignments, etc. There was another guy there, a little taller than me, but wide and thick, the proverbial brick s-house. He introduced himself as Brad and asked me if I wanted to be his room mate. I agreed and we went off to the barracks. Along the way we were talking about lifting and he was telling me about his competitions, what he could lift, etc. he was a 181 ( I was a 198 at the time) and his lifts were very impressive. He was squatting low sixes, dead lifting 650 and benching around 400. He had won a couple of national teenage titles and had even won a state title at the age of 20. We got to the room and put our stuff away and all of a sudden I noticed his long sleeve hooded sweatshirt, it was California and though it was winter, the temps were at least in the middle 80
 
great story. as a former marine, i was always curious as to how the military sports programs went (having almost went out for boxing, but opting to deploy instead). it sounds like a great enviornment.
that stupid lad though. did he not think that sooner or later he was going to have to actually perform?
 
His plan was to get off of the ship for a few weeks, knowing he had no chance of competing, but at least having a few weeks off in California, was better than shipboard duty. he had said he looked at the list of sports camps and he had known someone who had been to the camp a few years earlier, who had told him that the training was informal and so he thought he could do that better than being on a team sport. I believe he would have made it all the way to the tryouts if he had'nt partied so much
 
good story, nice little vacation for Brad
 
His lifts were the following at 181:

Bench: 250
Squat: 315
Deadlift: 365

Wouldn't that have been good enough to get on the team?
 
Keith Wassung said:
His plan was to get off of the ship for a few weeks, knowing he had no chance of competing, but at least having a few weeks off in California, was better than shipboard duty. he had said he looked at the list of sports camps and he had known someone who had been to the camp a few years earlier, who had told him that the training was informal and so he thought he could do that better than being on a team sport. I believe he would have made it all the way to the tryouts if he had'nt partied so much
Click to expand...

It was a good gig in that you were being paid to lift and nothing else. you received extra money and tons of perks, ie, allotment money for gear, all kinds of shirt, warm-ups, belts, suits, gas money, rental car, I think we got 35 a day for food and that was 20 years ago. We would also have dignitaries, ie retired admirals, state senators, come by and take whoever wanted to go, out for steak, etc. If we wanted new training equipment, it was there in like 48 hours so that was nice, but the atmosphere was terrible, Most of the team were using drugs and there was heavy pressure for me to do likewise. As the guys were increasing their drug usage, they were not the most pleasant people to be around. Very few of the guys took any pride in themselves as anything other than lifters, for example we would get dressed up in our military uniforms for a photo shoot and most of the team looked like crap, did'nt shave, their uniform was badly wrinkled, filthy and they could care less and I hated that. So I only had a few "friends" to sort of hang out with and Brad was one of them. We had another guy there who we used to call Barney Rubble, because he looked like him and I have many, many stories about him, decent lifter but a class A moron
 
Haha, as always an excellent story Keith. I know your stories are published in different forums and e-magazines? but you should try to get them published in book-form to make some cash.

Tales of iron, by Keith Wassung
 
I think our 181 guy had about a 1500 total
 
Very funny story. Poor Brad, just wanted off that damn ship...
 
Great read as usual.. From reading it though I've got mixed feelings about the Brad character tho.
 
theNuge said:
His lifts were the following at 181:

Bench: 250
Squat: 315
Deadlift: 365

Wouldn't that have been good enough to get on the team?
Click to expand...
No way. That guy is very close to me, and I am a 43 year old weekend warrior that never lifted properly in my life. Certainly if you are sampling a group as big as the Navy, you're going to have quite a few guys that are solid lifters.
 
That was a pretty good story. Did Brad get in any kind of trouble for his stunt?
 
I loved the whole story -- except for the fact that the fraud's numbers completely blow me away...
 
Great story Keith. Thanks man.

How did you do at the All Navy Championships?

Tell a Barney Rubble story when you have time.
 
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