Chapter 71: She Was Totally Doomed!
It was time to march from the obstacle course to the next hurdle of the day: the rappel tower.
"Rappel training is one of the obstacles and confidence training courses that all the recruits are required to navigate. Is there anybody here that has absolutely no apprehension or fear to go off the top of this tower?" Asked Sgt. Park
The soldiers looked at each other as none answered to Sgt. Park’s question because most of them fear it, except Keira, who seemed to be enthusiastically anticipating to do it.
"It is necessary to have respect for the height because overconfidence leads to accidents in the field," explained Sgt. Park
Then, Lieutenant Jang looked at them closely and said, "We’re trying to build up your confidence. Once you’ve overcome a fear of your own, your confidence level will sprout out in everything you do."
As the recruits tied their Swiss seat rappel harnesses, they realized that today was the day to overcome any lingering fear of height, which became apparent as they viewed the tower.
Pairs of cadets shuffled to the edge once they reached the top of the rappel tower.
Thirty-seven feet, it was all it would take to be planted firmly and safely on the ground again.
It was Keira’s turn. With her back to the edge of the tower, Keira used her brake hand on the rope to hold her in place. On the left side of the Tower, her fellow recruit Trish stood ready to lower herself down.
Sgt. Cole gave the command to rappel, and the recruits kicked off the wall and swooped down, descending in ten-foot increments to the ground.
While some recruits were more hesitant than others, failure to execute was unacceptable.