A little background for this one first. As I stated previously I enlisted in the Army at 30, so I’d lived and had responsibilities. I even had a goal: I wanted to fly under the radar. I would be perfectly content if the Drill Sergeants didn’t know how to pronounce my name at graduation. The only problem with that is I had traits that would prove to make that hard.

One of the first ones was I was competitive. I didn’t want to just get by on my fitness test (PT test), I wanted to excel. So I worked at my workouts and as a distance runner growing up my running camr back quick. So an older short guy outrunning most of the company made me stand out. I also couldn’t just stand by and watch someone struggle if I could coach and provide help. Unfortunately one of our sharp eyed Drill Sergeants noticed this, which is the point of this story.

The Jacob’s Ladder is a roughly 20 foot giant ladder. The first few rungs spaced enough to give you confidence, but the it gets further apart the higher you go. Being short, I was not looking forward to the top portion where the rungs were furthest apart. It looked like it was going to be questionable at best.

Being at Ft Jackson though we had female recruits and in my platoon 4 of them were what the head Drill Sergeant called micro Privates: None of them hit 5 feet tall. One of whom was directly in front of me in line. She started up and made quick progress ... until she got to the part I was dreading and was stuck. After a couple minutes of loud “encouragement” from the Drill Sergeant he turned to me and told me to get her up and over.

You don’t argue with the Drill Sergeants in basic training when they tell you to do something. You get to it with a quickness or your next hour gets rough. So sure enough, up I started, but now instead of worrying about me getting over I was worried about her getting over. Getting to her I grabbed her belt to support her so she could stretch to full extension and grab the next rung. Except she couldn’t. This woman literally didn’t have the reach and height to grab the top. What tip did I get from the DS to help? “Private, just grab her ass and get her over!” (Yes, even as ‘recent’ as 2008 the Army was very different than it is now).

So I hooked my right hand and used my left forearm as a seat for her (grabbing her ass just didn’t feel like a good idea). Then I boosted her up enough she could get the next rung. I then scrambled up myself and repeated the process two more times before getting her over and starting down the other side. Thankfully safe and sound for both of us.

Getting down one of the male soldiers asked me “So how did it feel to be 20 feet up, dangle by one hand, while supporting another person?” My answer “Let’s not mention that again. Makes it sound more terrifying than it felt at the time.”