Adventure racing less stressful than Cope North military medical field exercise, airman says

ROTA, Northern Marianas — Pitching emergency medical tents on a tiny Pacific island is more of a challenge than clambering over an obstacle course after an ocean swim and 12-mile run, according to the winner of Guam’s Trench Challenge adventure race.

Air Force Maj. Brian Johnson, 35, a medical officer and avid adventure racer from Inman, S.C., was on the island of Rota on Tuesday leading a team of 40 troops who set up a four-bed field hospital during the multinational Cope North exercise. The drills, which include 2,000 troops and more than 100 aircraft from the United States, Japan and Australia, launched Feb. 12 and run through the end of the month in and around Guam.

Johnson, who serves with the 36th Medical Group out of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, was also on Rota in October competing in the adventure race.

He won that event along with Guam’s Trench Challenge adventure race a month earlier, he said.

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