by Nick Delgado

Guam - The Guam Army National Guard showed appreciation for its troops by opening up a new fitness center at their Barrigada facility. However, the center is not only to honor our Guam soldiers, but also to remember those that paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Several months of love, blood, sweat and tears is what soldiers like Guam Army National Guard Colonel George Charfauros says went into making this new physical training facility possible. "This gym use to be - I hate to say it - trash; it was neglected and we thought that we owed our Guardsmen, our soldiers and airmen, a lot more than a gym that neglected," he said.

The same goes for Specialist Rosanne Chaco who says the facility has changed her attitude towards doing physical training regularly, telling KUAM News, "It's really heartwarming - it started out really dingy, everything was discombobulated and to have it turn out to look very magnificent like this it's very touching."

The equipment donated by soldiers allows for various circuit drills to be conducted, some drills even cutting down the troops daily workout time to about five minutes. Col. Charfauros says the facility is also motivated by the training they do as the Cross Fit 671 non-profit group, which he says for now is limited to military ID cardholders.

"We're trying to find a way to work with Cross Fit headquarters and actually expand out to help our fellow responders like the fire department, police department and any law enforcement, EMTs," he said.

Today the guard also demonstrated one functional fitness routine with the assistance of a member from the Navy and the Coast Guard. Charfauros adds that the facility is honor of the Guam soldiers that died while on deployment. "While we're in here in our workout and struggling in our workout we just look and see their pictures and what they sacrificed in comparison to what they did, it fails in comparison there's nothing that compares to what they did for us," he said.