Capt. Travis Chewning-Kulick, commander of the 752nd Ordnance Company pushes through the last few yards of a mile that will set the record for fastest one-mile run in a bomb suit at Phantom Warrior Stadium in Fort Cavazos, Texas, April 25, 2025. Capt. Chewning-Kulick broke the record which had stood since 2017 by 20 seconds. (Bowden Drake-Deese/U.S. Army)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (Tribune News Service) — Travis Chewning-Kulick is used to running marathons.
He’s run 11 of them, including the Boston Marathon — his favorite — five times. The Liverpool, N.Y., native has also completed several local events. He’s been an avid runner since elementary school and continues to run upwards of 50 miles a week.
But on April 25 at Fort Cavazos in Texas, Capt. Chewning-Kulick ran a race he’d rather not repeat.
Wearing a 50-pound bomb suit, Chewning-Kulick ran a mile around the track at Fort Cavazos in 7 minutes, 4 seconds, breaking the previous world record by 20 seconds.
“Running in the bomb suit is not a pleasurable experience,” Chewning-Kulick told syracuse.com. “Your range of motion is severely restricted and the jostling of the armor plates and the helmet on top of your head really throws off any sort of rhythm you can get into.”
At Liverpool High School, Chewning-Kulick ran track and cross country and also wrestled for two years. He graduated in 2013 and headed to the United States Military Academy at West Point to continue his family’s long legacy of military service.
His mother served in the Army for 24 years, and Chewning-Kulick has grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who have served.
“I’ve been around the Army my whole life,” Chewning-Kulick said. “I’ve been exposed to it and I really align with the mission statement and the values of serving a purpose greater than yourself and helping out those both here and overseas.”
While at West Point, Chewning-Kulick ran on the marathon team and competed in two marathons a year. He ran the Boston Marathon each spring in addition to marathons in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Mexico.
Before he moved to Texas in the spring of 2023, Chewning-Kulick spent time in Florida, Virginia and Kansas. At Fort Cavazos, he’s the commander of the 752nd Ordnance Company.
After running a good time in a physical fitness test back in 2021, Chewning-Kulick’s platoon sergeant looked up the world record time for the bomb suit mile and suggested he give it a try.
“Ever since then,” Chewning-Kulick said. “It’s kind of been a bug in my ear.”
Capt. Travis Chewning-Kulick, commander of the 752nd Ordnance Company runs around the track during his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for fastest one-mile run in a bomb suit at Phantom Warrior Stadium in Fort Cavazos, Texas, April 25, 2025. (Bowden Drake-Deese/U.S. Army)
In less than a month, Chewning-Kulick will be moving from Texas back to West Point, where he’ll be an instructor in the mechanical engineering department. He’s interested in teaching a class on weapons engineering, a topic very similar to his current position in explosive ordnance disposal.
As Chewning-Kulick’s final months in Texas approached, he began spending more time doing speed training on the track to ready himself for an attempt at the world record as a sort of “last hurrah” for those he’s served with at Fort Cavazos.
He did a test run in the bomb suit beforehand and then readied himself for the world record attempt.
Chewning-Kulick’s fellow soldiers and company commanders helped pace him and hundreds more watched him from the stands.
1st Sgt. Edwin Vazquez, who shares the 752nd EOD command with Chewning-Kulick and helped pace him during the race, was impressed.
“It’s even hard for me to keep up with him while he’s wearing the bomb suit,” Vazquez said after the race.
Though Chewning-Kulick admitted his splits were uneven and he didn’t get into much of a rhythm with 50 pounds of explosive ordnance protective gear weighing him down, he completed the four laps around the 400-meter track in time to easily break a world record that had stood since 2017.
“First lap, I probably went out a little too fast because I got excited with the crowd,” Chewning-Kulick said after the race. “I found something in that last 400 to bring it home.”
Chewning-Kulick’s move back to New York will allow him to visit home in Liverpool far more often. He hasn’t been back since Christmas 2023.
His world record run is awaiting official verification by Guinness World Records, which could take up to six months.
And he has designs on keeping that record.
“If someone breaks the record and runs faster than me, just the competitive nature in me will drive me to do it again,” Chewning-Kulick said. “But without that external motivation, I have no desire to just run in a bomb suit for fun.”
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