Straps creak as I crest the hill, the wind that sweeps past cools the moisture on my skin, looking down the hill I see the faint glow of chem-lights moving down an unseen trail. With a huff I readjust my pack and step off again, ’12 miles isn’t going to get any shorter by standing here.’ Glancing at my watch I almost trip in the soft sand beneath my feet.
At midnight the drill sergeants rouse us from our cots, eye’s groggy with lack of sleep we prepare or gear for the 12 mile road march that awaits us. All week long we had marched to and from different tests miles and miles every day. Taking my place in line I take count of my team, checking gear, tightening straps, and resolving last minute concerns. A few females’ packs are far too heavy for them so to lighten the load I take their two-quart canteens. The added weight pulls on my shoulders heavily, I could have removed items to send in the trucks but to make this more of a challenge I had decided to keep as many things as I could, so I was not looking forward to the additional to gallons of water that I now had to carry. My obsession with challenging myself beyond what was required had put me in a difficult situation, and for the first time I wondered if I could actually make it.
Down one hill barely two miles into it and already my fellow classmen are voicing their concerns, complaints of pace and cold wear at my nerves, knowing full well what I thought of the useless and unnecessary noise my team stays silent keeping to themselves as we all continue our quick paced march through the hills of South Carolina.
“Cooley” the authoritative voice breaks the monotony of my marching. Glancing around looking for who had called my name a drill sergeant pulls me to the center of the road, “I need you to work your way up to the lead of the column and tell them to slow down.” I didn’t quite understand why because they had radios but following my orders I leaned forward and began a sort of dragging-jog known as the airborne shuffle. From my new vantage point I could see that the front of the column was well over a mile away cresting a huge hill. Distraught but determined I continued on to my goal. I soon found myself alone in the dark half of the lead platoon had slowed down causing a gap of large proportions to form. As I pushed on I prayed that I wouldn’t get lost by myself when up ahead I spotted two forms in the dark, passing by silently their heavy breathing were growls of determination as they sped up to pace behind me. Further ahead I saw more and more dark forms making their way up the hill side, passing many of these soldiers showed the toll of a week of hard work and lack of sleep as they placed one foot in front of the other. Finally the lights of the lead came into view, “Sir!” I called out in the darkness the company commander glanced over his shoulder as he continued on at a quick pace. Knowing that I had his attention I continued, “We lost contact with you and the drill sergeants request that we hold so the rest of the column can catch up.” At this the CO checked his radio to find it had died, giving the order to halt glancing around he noticed that instead of almost three hundred soldiers he was leading 15 or so. We had gained such a lead on the rest of the company that it took nearly an hour for them to catch up. After a few more minutes of rest we once more were on our way one tired step after another.
In all honesty the army wasn’t the challenge I thought it was. Everything the army throws at you is well within the capabilities of the average person; the trick is that they exhaust you before so instead of being a test of strength or physical endurance their focus is on your determination. Any mundane task can be made exponentially more difficult by the fact that you’re tired, hungry, and some guy is yelling at you. The options are that you can freak out and get in more trouble or grow some determination to overcome anything that gets in your way. It’s moments like these where you find out what your truly made of, it’s you at you deepest most vulnerable state. You can be like one guy who, after complaining for eleven and a half miles, gives up two blocks from the finish accepting failure and destroying moral with incessant winning. On the other hand you can emulate the guy who walked quietly the entire time, even helping by carrying his exhausted comrade’s gear till his boots began to turn red from the blood of blistered feet.
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