CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A young man with a four-inch metal spike protruding from his chin attempted to do pull-ups while bobbing his head to avoid getting his personal decoration caught on the bar.
Marines from Marine Corps Recruiting Station Cleveland encouraged him.
This was definitely not a Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program event.
This was Xfest 2003. A June 1st event held by Cleveland?s number one rock station 92.3 Xtreme Radio and sponsored in part by the Marines of RS Cleveland.
The Marine?s 20-foot inflatable Drill Instructor greeted the roughly 4000 people who flocked to downtown Cleveland?s Tower City Amphitheater to enjoy the sounds of ?Stained,? ?Cold,? ?Trapt,? ?(hed) PE,? ?Seether,? ?RA,? ?Smile Empty Soul? and the local band ?Dirt.?
Over 300 of the concertgoers mounted the pull-up bar and attempted to execute enough pull-ups for a prize.
The record for most pull-ups at the event was 28 until Corporal Richard Kruzel, a prior service Marine who re-enlisted March 31st, set the new record at 29. ?I just couldn?t let anyone but a Marine hold the record for pull-ups at a pull-up challenge,? said Kruzel.
The Marine booth was set up directly in the path going into the stage area where no one could have avoided seeing it. In addition to the booth, Xtreme radio aired promotions and Marine Corps advertisements for a week leading up to the event and a week after. In addition, several Marine Corps banners were displayed in prominent areas throughout the venue.
Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Cooke, Recruiting Sub Station Metro West Non-commissioned Officer In Charce, said Xfest was the best Enhanced Area Canvassing event he has been to during his six years on recruiting duty.
?Anytime you can have that many age qualified kids lined up for fifty-feet all day and most of the night to get on the pull-up bar it?s a great event,? said Cooke. ?Most events we do have a mixed group of age ranges but most of this crowd was comprised of people in the exact age range we look for in Marine recruiting.?
Cooke said in addition to the amount of age-qualified leads his team of recruiters made several contacts with other people who can enhance his recruiting efforts.
?There were some parents there and other sponsors who knew people interested in joining,? said Cooke. ?All in all, this was an unbelievable event.?