Military recruiters spend much of their time outside the office, working through local schools and other avenues to find young men and women who might be interested in a future in the armed forces.

While you might see recruiting offices tucked away in shopping centers around the region, some will say that it is rare for a recruit to actually set out to come there and sign up. Sgt. Kevin Loy, a Marine recruiter based in McDonough, will attest to that.

Walker Inman was that rare exception. “He just walked straight into the office on a summer day,” said Loy.

Inman turned out to be exceptional in more ways than one. The Union Grove High School alumnus was recently singled out at his company’s graduation at Parris Island, S.C. as its Ironman. He was the top finisher out of some 550 Marines with perfect scores in both the physical fitness test (PFT) and combat fitness test (CFT).

Inman spent a few years in college before that fateful trip to Loy’s office. “He knew he always wanted to go into the military,” said Tammie Inman, his mother. “He decided to go into the Marines so he went and enlisted.”

The PFT consists of three parts – pull-ups, crunches and a three-mile run – with minimum and maximum standards for each. Inman achieve far above the maximum in each category needed for a perfect score, and also finished far ahead of the competitor in second place.

As one might expect, the CFT is geared toward combat readiness. It also has three separate activities which are rather specialized: running 880 yards in a battle dress uniform; lifting a 30-pound ammunitions can overhead as often as possible in two minutes; and performing a maneuver-under-fire simulated event, a timed 300-yard shuttle run in which Marines are paired up by size and perform sprints, agility course, high crawl, low crawl, body drag, fireman carry, ammo can carry, push-ups and grenade throw.

Excelling in both the PFT and CFT requires the right mix of speed and strength. “For someone to max out the scores on both is pretty uncommon,” said Loy, whose office sends about 70 recruits to boot camp each year.

Inman’s preparation for these events actually began in middle school when he began running cross-country, his mother said. He eventually was captain of his team at Union Grove High which placed at the state meet during his tenure.

Having achieved the rank of private first class because of his college background, he is now taking part in combat training as all Marines do. But it is not certain yet what he will eventually do, and that is partially because of his excellent performance in basic training. He has options that not all recruits have.

“He may be asked to do something different than what he signed up for, which is not normal,” said Loy.