As we get older, we learn more about ourselves. We have experiences that test us, try our patience, stress us, bring us joy, put a tear in our eyes. Some of the things we learn can come as a real surprise to us, a talent, an ability, an attitude, a fear. Imagine my surprise when, at the age of 38 (and after 21 years of climbing around on trucks, throwing chains and binders, spreading out tarps, tying ropes to loads; sometimes quit high off the ground), I discovered I was terrified of heights. The kind of fear that can freeze you up. As usual with everything at that time in my life, it was the Army's fault.

I happened to be at Fort Ord, in the 7th Infantry Division, when the Army decided it liked the results of Grenada. The 82nd Airborne had been sent to Grenada right out of field exercise. They went in without any support equipment at all. They were told to secure local stuff for their support...write an IOU. So when they needed a truck, they went down the road to the local van and storage company and got some trucks...need gas? A little further down the road is a gas station, it now becomes your fuel issue point. There's a Safeway a couple of blocks over, it is now you Class I issue facility (Class I is food). And so it went. This was so successful that the Army decided that they should have several divisions that were capable of doing the same thing. They called the concept "Infantry Division Light". Some laughingly remarked they were a "third less Killing" (it comes from an old beer commercial...they're no good if you gotta explain'em). So the 7th ID was designated "Light". But that wasn't enough. You can't just say "Poof...you are Light!" Wish you could. Along with the designation was the requirement that EVERY soldier in the division had to go through a mini-ranger course and become qualified as a "Light Fighter". Then, when everyone was a light fighter, then each unit would then have to train together to earn their creds.

So suddenly, every cook, mechanic, truck driver, and clerk had to face the daunting task of passing the Light Fighter requirements; hand to hand combat, bayonet fighting, running a loooooong ways, forced marches with 70lb packs, rappelling, rope bridges, sneaking around in the dark, and all kinds of other non-clerk, mechanic, driver, spatula related tasks. Believe it or not, even at the advanced age of 38, most of that stuff wasn't that big a deal to me. I could shoot, fight, run, sneak and lots of other soldier skills pretty good...I was, after all, a soldier. BUT. One of the training events was the team obstacle course. One of the events on the obstacle course was...I don't know what it was called so I'll just call it "Fred" (with a little howdy to Rodney Carrington). Fred started with a cargo net attached to some really tall telephone-type poles, with another pole layed across the uprights that the top of the net was attached to. This rig looked like it was about 200 feet tall but was really more like 40 feet or so. Once you climbed the net, you crawled over the top log, shinnied down a log that was leaning up on the top log, it stopped at a framework that was kind of like a real wide ladder, with the rungs about 3 feet apart, laying flat, still about 25 feet off the ground. You had to walk across this laying-flat ladder about 50 feet to the other end and shinny down a knotted rope to the ground. Whew.

Being the platoon sergeant, I was standing at the bottom encouraging my troops to scramble up the net, having a pretty good time. When there was only a few troops left, I started up the net...to show the kids how it was done...and got up to the cross piece at the top...

This obstacle course was set up on one of the tallest coastal hills on Fort Ord, behind the old 1st Training Brigade's concrete barracks just off Imjin Road. Fred was set up on the very highest point around. From the top of the cargo net you could see all the way to Pacific Grove to the south and up to where Santa Clara disappeared into the haze to the north. Well...maybe not that far...but a fur piece. I became very familiar with the view because I spent a good portion of the afternoon laced into the cargo net right at the tippity top with no intention of ever moving again. Funny, huh? It took one of my senior drivers, Little John, to talk me over the top log. We sat up there and visited for a while, then I finally made the effort to leg over the top. After that it was easier because I think my cowardly little inner creature realized we were heading for the ground and wanted to cooperate.

I had spent a career climbing and jumping off of trucks and other things, I never had a qualm about it before. I guess my sniveling little inner creature had an altimeter attached or something...I just never got high enough before or something. I told you all this to set the stage for the "Rest of the Story". I sat on the sandy ground contemplating the next day...when my platoon began the next phase of light fighter training: Rappelling.

A lot of what we learn about ourselves falls in the category of, "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then" -Bobby Seger.