Page 4 - Luke AFB Thunderbolt 2-19-16

Feb. 19, 2016 SPOTLIGHT
4 www.aerotechnews.com/lukeafb
One man’s power
behind the iron
by Airman 1st Class
RIDGE SHAN
56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs to be ripped and shredded, I didn’t even think
The circumference of his arms test the
strength of the fabric of the normally baggy
sleeves of his Airman Battle Uniform, which
stretches across his chest just far enough to look
like a snug fit. It’s easy to see that he’s a large
man, and though his uniform may attempt to
hide it, it’s easy to see why.
Tech. Sgt. Benjamin O’Brien, 56th Equipment
Maintenance Squadron assistant section chief,
began lifting weights when he was 16.
“I got involved with weightlifting when I
started playing football, track and field, and
wrestling in high school,” he said. “A lot of the
lifting back then was Olympic-style weightlifting
and not powerlifting. We did some bench, but a
lot of it was Olympic-style squatting, clean and
jerks, overhead snatch and overhead presses.”
This year, O’Brien took second place in the
220-pound open men’s raw division single-lift bench
press at the U.S. Powerlifting Association American
Cup in Los Angeles with a 473-pound lift, the high-
est amount ever recorded for a 220-poundArizonan,
breaking the previous state record which was also
set by O’Brien. Last year, O’Brien won the complete
three-event full-power division.
O’Brien has also placed in the top three for his
weight class for the past five consecutive years
at the Mr. Olympia Pro Invitational Powerlifting
competition, part of the overall Olympia event
made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body-
building victories in previous decades. O’Brien
took first place in 2013.
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“I’ve been plugging away at this for a little
over 20 years,” O’Brien said. “When I was a kid,
I always wanted to be a bodybuilder. I wanted
about being a powerlifter at the time.”
That journey began in 2002, after O’Brien
was introduced to the powerlifting sport by his
cousin, a 6’2” 310-pound professional who was
benching over 700 pounds in his own competi-
tions.
“He won the Arnold Classic back in 2001,”
O’Brien said. “He was probably one of the best
in the world at the time.”
While that journey was starting, another was
ending. O’Brien joined the Army as an infantry-
man in 1998 at the age of 18.
“I was in a dead-end job after high school,
lost interest in college, and I just wanted to do
something different,” O’Brien said. “It was tough,
mentally and physically. After four years, my
body was actually pretty beat up. In 2002 I was
in my early twenties and my knees and back
were already aching. I didn’t want that lifestyle.”
For O’Brien, the mental aspect of being an
infantryman was even tougher.
“I had some really good friends who were
killed in action on deployments,” O’Brien said.
“That was something that really affected me. I
loved what I did, and I still have a lot of great
friends in the Army, but it was hard to watch
people as young as me not be able to have a life
afterward. I didn’t want to deal with that kind
of hardship for an entire career.”
O’Brien left the Army after his first enlistment
See POWER, Page 19
Thunderbolt
http://www.luke.af.mil
AETC announces media contest winners
The following individuals are 2016 Air Education and Training Com-
mand Media first-place award winners at Luke Air Force Base. The winners
will represent The First Command at Air Force level in their respective
categories.
WK)LJKWHU:LQJ3XEOLF$IIDLUV
Photojournalism: Airman 1st Class Ridge Shan
Photojournalist: Staff Sgt. Grace Lee
Outstanding new photographer: Airman 1st Class Ridge Shan
Outstanding new broadcaster: Airman 1st Class Joshua Altice
Retiree witnesses historic
‘I Have a Dream’ speech
by Staff Sgt. in getting in the reflective pool and
GRACE LEE climbing up a tree than I was in
all the activity. At the Washington
56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs Monument they had TV cameras
everywhere; they had CBS, NBC
It was Aug. 23, 1963, in D.C. and it and ABC, which were the only three
was hot. He was a child standing in stations we had then.”
a sea of people when he heard a man
he didn’t know begin to speak. While It was a long time before Bruce re-
he vaguely remembers the beginning alized it had been a historic moment.
of the speech, he clearly recalls the
words, “I have a dream …” “Around a quarter to noon without
anyone saying anything the crowd
Although he was 10 years old at began to form up and move paral-
the time, he remembers that day like lel to the reflecting pool in front of
it was yesterday. the Lincoln Memorial,” he said. “As
we moved the crowd sang the Civil
“It was early in the morning about Rights anthem which was ‘We Shall
9 a.m. when we rode yellow buses Overcome.’ We held hands marching
from church down to Washington toward the Lincoln Memorial.”
D.C. to the Washington Monument,”
said Ben Bruce, 56th Fighter Wing After listening to a series of speech-
Ground Safety manager. “Since I
was a child, I was more interested See SPEECH, Page 7
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