Battle Stations: part four

We filed into the gym for our last challenge. In the middle of the floor and somehow covertly and dramatically lit, was our next challenge: a vertical piece of plywood with a circular hole in it. We looked at it dumbfounded for a second. Then DI Delaney walked up to it and told us, we had to get every single one of our team through that hole without touching the red hot sides.

We circled up for a moment and I looked around. For some reason, they were all looking at me. I said “conveyor belt, biggest first, smallest last”? For some reason they leapt into action. Picking me up horizontally and running me toward and then through the hole feet first. As I scrambled up to catch the next guy through the hole we formed a human conveyor belt with our arms and one by one each guy was moved like a centipede through the hole. When only the smallest man was left, the two tallest of us on the other side stuck our arms through the hole and we told him to run and leap, we would pull him through.

That is exactly what happened. And when he stood up our DI stopped the clock with a look of utter disbelief on his face.

“The record time for this exercise in my time here stood at four minutes and twenty one seconds. You men did it in one minute and fifty eight seconds. Kroll, take this marker and write the Division number and time on the board. It’s the new record to beat.”

The rest of that morning went by like a euphoric high. We got to the mess hall at 5:00 am, and finally, got to go in before every other division. And for only us, there was no time limit on how long we ate, and how many times we went back up for seconds. We sat there for the better part of an hour regaling the reunited division of eighty six men on the highs and lows of the previous four hours.

The bond we built that night was perfect humanity. There was no unnecessary thought; there was no debate or want of power. There was no politics or mistrust. We were bonded as human beings by a common goal, and we knew that everything said was to aid each other, and that help could be given without having been asked for or without glory being assigned.

It is important in this society to build a common bond with each other. We have become mistrustful. For all the benefits we reap from our pride in diversity, one has to ask, is the cost of diversity unity?