Battle Stations: part three

By 3:30 am, we were dried off and moving to the fire building. We were tasked with maneuvering through the interior of a ship, with no light at all, just by feeling the walls. We all linked together and I led the way through. I only got us lost once. At the other end we had to don fire equipment and put out three separate fires.

The obstacle course was exactly what you think it was. A lot of slithering on our bellies, getting up and over walls, climbing structures, etc… but the two things you might not think of in your imagination are: The actual-weight human dummy on the life spine board we had to carry with us, or the fact that we were all wearing gasmasks.

The final obstacle was a semi circular fifteen foot slide… and we had to go up it. But if any part of our body could be seen over the lip of the slide we had to come back down and start over. This proved to be unattainable for every single one of us. After spending half an hour giving each guy a chance to try and reach the top, if finally came to my turn. The logic was that because I was the tallest, I would be able to get the furthest up.

This is how I told them to do it. I laid on my side on the slide, then someone grabbed my feet and pushed as hard as they could. I was only half way up the slide when we reached the limit of help that the team could offer me. I put my hands against the side of the slide and wedged my back against the other side, and then I did the same with my knees. I have no idea how long it took me to do that sideways crawl up the slide, wedging myself slowly up inch by inch. At the very moment when I was closest to giving up, I chanced an upward glance.

That one movement had compromised my wedge and I felt myself begin to slip. In a leap of faith, I rolled onto my stomach and shot both my hands up to try and reach the top lip of the slide. I caught it with my left. I heard the gasps below me and in that pregnant pause of silence; I reached up with my right hand and planted both hands within solid grasp of victory.

I lay there on the slide, gasping for breath through the slow filters of the mask, eyes closed, face and mask mashed against the slide. I can feel the sweat on my palms, and I adjust my grip. I take a huge breath; the filters on the mask make a wheezing sound as I strain them. With baited breath, I pull.

I barely move at first, my arms pulling my limp body upward. I remember that I have legs and spread my legs into what can only be describes as frog legs and used my toes to push. As I began to move the forward momentum helped me keep moving. I slithered over the lip of the slide and crashed on the deck. Before my momentum died, I got up and went back to the lip of the slide.

Attached to the stretcher we were carrying was a length of rope. I told them to throw one end up to me. I caught it on the first try and began to haul the body and stretcher up the slide. Once I got the stretcher on the deck I threw the rope back down and hauled one of my shipmates up. Once he was up, I gave him the rope and said “you get the next guy”, then I collapsed. My DI, who had been on the deck through the entire exercise, walked over to where I lay heaving on the ground.

“Drill Instructor, can I please take my gasmask off? I can barely breathe in it.” I pleaded. I don’t need to imagine what a person goes through in an asthma attack, I felt it. He crouched down so we were at the same level, and quietly so only I could hear he said:

“No, Kroll. Wear it for a minute longer. You need to feel this. You need to know how to calm your breathing, and maintain control. Remember, if this was real, and you took off your mask, the first breath you take could kill you.”

After two minutes of the most concentrated breaths I have ever taken, he told me to take off the mask. We moved on to the next challenge rapidly. Jogging back to the main side of base, we sang the cadences we had learned and when those got old we would sing songs from the 60’s. We had two challenges left, the shooting range, and the evacuation hatch. The shooting range went quickly. It was more sitting and waiting your turn than team building. But at that moment, the rest was exactly what was needed.