TacFit President receives Air Force Achievement Medal

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Carly A. Costello
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. David LeClaire, U.S. Strategic Command, was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal for his work and dedication to the Team Offutt Tactical Fitness program by Offutt's Mission Support Group Commander, U.S. Air Force Col. Andrea Tullos on April 26.

LeClaire, who started working with Offutt's TacFit program in August 2011 and has served as the TacFit President since June 2012, was nominated for the medal by Tullos.

"He is a very important reason why this entire effort got off the ground," Tullos said during the presentation.

When asked why she nominated LeClaire for the award, Tullos said that it's important to recognize people like LeClaire who give so much of their leadership and selfless service to the community.

"With today's fiscal constraints, if we want to preserve these types of programs, keep them open to the population beyond the active duty force, and prevent charging prohibitive fees for the service, we have to continue to incentivize and recognize the volunteers who give so much of their time to the broader community," Tullos said. "[LeClaire] leads a team of volunteers who coach, shadow, program the workouts, run the website and Facebook page, manage the equipment, and interface with the [Health and Wellness Center] staff and the Offutt Field House staff to provide an environment where everyone can be successful."

LeClaire started working with a small cadre of Team Offutt members, including Tullos, in August 2011, helping to coordinate 36 volunteers to become coaches and mentors and to run a CrossFit program at Offutt. With his leadership, the TacFit program has become a broad-based program that focuses on improving overall fitness of its members.

"I would say our biggest accomplishment is having a successful program on base," LeClaire said. "It has been an uphill journey from the start. We are blessed with two great things, having the room for a CrossFit area and having leadership at the field house, in force support, mission support group, the 55th Wing and STRATCOM that supported the building of this program."

Currently, there are 13 free classes offered every week to approximately 100 dedicated and experienced CrossFitters, meaning they attend at least one class a week, and an On-Ramp class offered three times a week on a month to month basis for beginners. The program also hosted its first TacFit games in January where 88 athletes from Offutt and surrounding CrossFit gyms came together to compete and will sponsor a CrossFit competition for military members in June, something that could only be made possible with the help of volunteers like LeClaire.

"In his role as president, Dave has been directly in charge of quality control of the coaches and the programming," said U.S. Air Force Maj. Jason Howell, U.S. Strategic Command and TacFit coach. "He is involved deeply in the day to day operations to make sure that our coaches provide the highest quality of training to Team Offutt."

On average, LeClaire spends 42 hours a week dedicated to the TacFit program. Seven days a week, LeClaire breaks up his time between coaching classes, setting up and cleaning up for classes, programming the workouts, updating and maintaining the TacFit Facebook page and website, researching new equipment and certification opportunities for coaches, scheduling coaches, meeting with field house leadership and numerous other things.

"Doing [TacFit], plus my regular job, plus being a husband and a father means sleep is a very rare thing," Leclaie said, but he enjoys what he does.

"If it wasn't for this community, I wouldn't do this," he said after receiving the medal. "I love seeing you all come out here."

Recently, LeClaire was selected to be a part of a committee that is working to re-write fitness guidelines for the Air Force, Howell said. "His valuable inputs and leadership will benefit all members of the United States Air Force."