Todays News

From the Army to Planet Fitness

Marshalltown gym manager finds familiarity, challenges in new role

The desire for camaraderie drove Chris Adams to join the Army in 2009.

"I watched 'Band of Brothers' and did not have a good family dynamic growing up," he said. "I saw the camaraderie and thought that was something I wanted to be a part of. I watched war movies growing up and thought it was the manly thing to do. I was young, full of it and wanted to go after it. I also wanted to fight for our freedoms and the American way of life."

After completing basic training and airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia, Adams found the camaraderie he was looking for in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team 1-503 Dog Company 1st Platoon, which is a heavy weapons company.

"They would send us into the most dangerous environments because we had the heaviest firepower for the whole battalion,” he said. "Everyone else was on foot patrol."

Adams, 36, of Gladbrook, has been the club manager for the last seven months of Planet Fitness in Marshalltown, which is a long way away from the city he is originally from -- West Palm Beach, Fla. He ended up in Gladbrook in 2023 because an Army friend lived there, too.

"We were living in Colorado, and then I traveled [a little bit] and was in Washington state when my son's mom and me split up," he said. "I called him up and asked where he was at, and he said he was in Iowa. I thought, 'I've never been to Iowa,' and landed in Gladbrook."

During his career, he was stationed in Casema Ederle in Vicensa, Italy, went on two deployments to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2012 where he went through a lot of combat. During his first deployment, he was a machine gunner and a dismounted infantryman.

"My first deployment, we would roll around with EOD [Explosive Ordinance Device] which would find bombs," Adams said. "The Taliban takes time to dig up the ground and put in the bomb. They would send us with bomb technicians for security and watch the mountainsides while they would dig up the bombs."

There was a lot of highway route clearance and tactical troop movements – moving sergeant majors throughout areas of operation. The combat Adams went through was during that first deployment as the Taliban did not want to give up their bombs.

Adams was in the "middle of nowhere" during his second deployment, and the military was getting ready to hand the country over to the Afghan national forces by ripping out bases.

"In that deployment, I was more of a machine gunner and a team lead," he said. "We did a lot of route clearance, as well, and air assaults in the mountains."

During the second deployment, Adams was a team leader and dismounted machine gunner. He described the combat as "all the time" during his second deployment. Within the first three or four weeks, he and his fellow soldiers were target practicing. A friend of his went to get targets and a rocket hit him, injuring his hand.

"Half my platoon went this way and the other half went that way," Adams said. ". . . This was a catastrophic wipe out."

Some soldiers went to a nearby elevated site to respond to the attack when another rocket hit. One of the soldiers lost a finger, another had part of his scapula blown off, some shrapnel went under another soldier's vest and severed his aorta. Adams said he was dead within 20 seconds.

His now next-door-neighbor and fellow soldier got a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Life after service

"We saw lots of combat," he said. "It was so frequent. . . . I have no Purple Hearts. I had traumatic brain injuries, some concussive blasts from a rocket blowing up over my head. During that time, I was actually engaging with the machine gun and the rocket exploded over me, but I ended up neutralizing the combatant from a distance worthy of an award, I guess. So, they gave me that."

He ended his Army career with an E-4 ranking. Due to his injuries, Adams is considered "100-percent, totally disabled."

"The injuries I have are sustained and won't get better," he said. "Over time, they will get worse. . . . I have the TBI, damage to my scapula, both of my knees are trashed, herniations in my cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, bone spurs. I'm pretty trashed for my age."

Even though Adams does not have to work, he chooses to as he will "go insane sitting around, doing nothing."

"It has been nice," he said. "I didn't ask for the unemployability. The Veterans Affairs gave it to me because of my injuries because it will be an issue. They told me when I need to stop, I should stop."

Life following his service has seen a lot of moves for Adams. He has lived in Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Colorado and now Iowa. During his time in those states, he lived in multiple locations.

"Sometimes we have a problem sitting down," Adams said.

After his time in the Army, he regained the 80 pounds he lost in order to join. However, Adams lost more than 60 pounds of it again through intermittent fasting and using equipment at Planet Fitness. He described himself as a "big walker," so he is a fan of the treadmills. Besides the weight loss, Adams has found other benefits to working at the Marshalltown gym.

"I tend to be an isolationist," he said. "I get to be around great work staff and members of society. In its own way, Planet Fitness resembles the military structure. We have the people we support – our members and then a rank structure in the staff. It's familiar to me.I have a chain of command and it's ultra-supportive. Planet Fitness has also provided me with critical thinking challenges in how to satisfy members. Being around all of these people, I get to utilize the skills I've learned instead of isolating and staying at home."

For people who have aspirations of a military career, Adams said they need to research and make sure it is what they want. Also, they should do jobs that are transferable to civilian life.

"I was infantry, which doesn't translate to anything other than armed security and law enforcement, which I have navigated, and now the gym," he said. "That is something to look into. Also, make sure you document your injuries and mental health. Get help sooner rather than later so it doesn't become something you can't tackle. And be easy on yourself and others around you."

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.