Operation overload: when Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Chad Ray Martin isn't arming F-16s to rain fire from the skies, you can find him in the gym slamming 585 at the squat rack. And you thought your life was kind of hectic

Muscle & Fitness, August, 2006 by Eric Velazquez

While most of the kids on his block watched fire trucks rumble down the street and hoped to someday make a living rescuing people from burning buildings and taking the house dalmatian for walks, Chad Ray Martin was setting his sights higher--about 40,000 feet higher.

Growing up near Fort Smith in Arkansas--home of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard--he saw F-16 fighter jets streaking across the sky at supersonic speeds every day, the powerful hum of the jet engines rattling the windows of homes and scaring birds from trees. So much for sirens and ladders. "I wanted to be associated with the F-16s somehow," says Martin, 32. "I didn't want to be a pilot, but I knew I wanted to work on them or something."

When it comes to air combat, there simply aren't a whole lot of things that can measure up to the rush of being in the cockpit and engaging bogeys from 50 miles away--unless you're loading heat-seeking missiles and 500-pound air-to-ground bombs onto the bellies and wings of the planes themselves, explains Martin, who enlisted at Fort Smith at the age of 16 and plans to retire from the Air National Guard after completing 20 years of service.

And when he's not hoisting quarter-ton ordnance onto flying instruments of war, he's waging his own shock-and-awe campaign in the gym. But Martin, a competitive bodybuilder, didn't realize how much his toils would pay off until a summer in Babylon. "Since I'm a weapons loader, my strength came in handy, but we traveled often by foot so my conditioning also made things easier for me than some people."

DODGING POP ROCKS

With such a long service record and the U.S. involved in two major military conflicts during his time in the service, you might expect Martin to be a grizzled war veteran full of close-call combat stories. In fact, he didn't receive deployment to a war zone until June 2005.

His unit's duty? Arming F-16s at the busiest and most heavily populated U.S. military installation in Iraq: Balad Air Force Base, just north of where Saddam used to hang his hat and home to more than 23,000 servicemen and -women from all four branches of the military. To the soldiers and airmen stationed there, Balad AFB was a city unto itself where getting to the mess hall could mean a 30-minute walk or 10-minute jeep ride. To the insurgents outside its walls, it was a target.

"We were always within the confines of the base, but we were attacked 121 times while we were there," Martin says. Attack within such a large perimeter could only be achieved by mortar fire from miles away, since the U.S. had crippled the Iraqis' air capabilities in the last Gulf War. Asked what it was like taking mortar fire, Martin claims it was similar to "having someone throw a package of pop rocks in your cubicle" or "pulling up to a stop sign and the car next to you has 12-inch kickers on full blast," referring to the deep-bass thud of big speakers. "When you heard something like that, you knew something was hitting the ground."

As rudimentary as the mortars were, there were still American casualties at Balad. "If you were at the wrong place at the wrong time on the base, then you were in trouble, but no one from my unit was hurt."

ACCELERATED GAINS

Surprisingly, dodging shrapnel and working out on the runway in the middle of the desert does little for your physique. Martin lost nearly 30 pounds during his 90-day tour, but he believes it could've been worse if not for his dedication to the iron. Still, he went from 247 pounds and 7% bodyfat to 220 pounds and 15% bodyfat in those three months.

"Training was not an option because you work 12-hour days, seven days a week, in 130-degree temperatures in full body armor," he says. "I didn't touch a weight while I was there. Most of the time we were in full combat gear and with it being so hot, your body can't handle much."

Likewise, his usual dietary scheme of fish, chicken, rice and oatmeal was put on hold. Due to the extreme temperatures, the nutritional goal of U.S. forces at Balad was to take in as many calories as possible to maintain strength and keep energy levels high. Between mealtimes, Martin knocked down MREs (meals ready to eat), which he says are "loaded with calories, carbs and fat."

But his time abroad had an unexpected benefit when he returned home and started training again. "My body responded like there was no tomorrow, and I flew past where I was before I left," he says. "It didn't matter what I did. I ended up in my best shape ever."

When you're getting results as fast as he was, you tend to attack your workouts with a bit more zeal. Martin was back into his routine of basic, heavy lifts and seemed to get stronger with every session. On his best leg days, he squats 585 pounds for five reps.

"That's butt to the floor, too," he quickly points out. "I don't do that parallel or just-above-parallel crap--I slam it every time." Can't fault a guy for slamming it, especially when he has swept-out quads to show for it.

Just a few months ago, in late April, Martin took the overall title at the NPC Junior USAs. Not bad for a guy who was handling heavy explosives in a Kevlar vest in the middle of a war zone just seven months earlier, huh?