![]() Her 10-year-old brother, Patrick, was a little less confident. Twice more, she mounted the steel stairs to the top to rappel down again. I'm going to die.' "Īpparently, the near-death experience was to her liking. "Oh, my God! My legs are numb," she exclaimed as she was unharnessed at the base of the wall. Grunting and shrieking all the way, 13-year-old Megan Allen bounced and glided down the 40-foot rappelling wall at Victory Tower. Marksmanship "badges," attached to their muddy tees with bright yellow tape. To Mathew's chagrin, Carter had predicted correctly: Mackenzie scored 15 ("sharpshooter") to Mathew's 10 ("marksman"), an achievement officially recorded on the paper When Mathew had finished shooting and Mackenzie was becoming more and more comfortable snuggled against the sandbags, Carter good-naturedly razzed his son. ![]() Neither Mathew nor Mackenzie lost concentration. No bursts.Īs the crack of each shot rent the air, the rifle bucked in the shooter's hands. Each had one magazine to prove his or her mettle. But Mackenzie "tends to listen a little better."įirst Mathew and then Mackenzie lay prone on a camo-colored poncho, peering through the rifle sight, waiting for a small red dot to point out the kill zone on a series of targets that popped up from red clay berms 50 and 75 meters away. "He's had more experience," said Mathew's father, Sgt. Would the 14-year-old be able to hit more targets than his sister, Mackenzie, 15? Mathew Carter put his manhood on the line at the shooting range. ![]() "I don't know why I'm so scared to walk in the puddles," she said, realizing the pointlessness of her actions. Mom and the girls, however, were coated head to toe with sand and mud.Įven so, Angie Rosario delicately avoided the makeshift ponds the night's rain had left on the post's gravel paths, skipping around and not through them. Somehow, they had missed all the puddles. 1st Class Jose Rosario, shepherded the couple's son, Javier, through the easier parts of the course - the ones a 4-year-old could manage.Īt the end of the day, only Jose and Javier were some version of clean. As she and the girls toiled, Angie's husband, Sgt. What the families got out of the day, though, was fun, bragging rights and nightmare loads of laundry.Īngie Rosario seemed game for it all as she and her three girls leapt over short walls, scuttled through tunnels and wriggled on their backs under barbed wire. "What they get out of it is a sense of pride in their unit, a sense of camaraderie and teamwork," Taylor said. Leonard Taylor explained to families eager to tackle the obstacle course what purpose the rigors of such training achieved. Bryan Hernandez that featured a flying rubber snake and a slide of a "compliance officer" who looked suspiciously like Bigfoot, the day included negotiating the over and under obstacles of the Fit to Win course, shooting at mechanized pop-up silhouettes on the rifle range and - with varying degrees of finesse - rappelling 40 feet down the Victory Tower to the cheers of family members.Īt the end of every event, dirt- and sweat-stained participants swigged electric blue or ruby red Victory Punch so cold it made your teeth hurt.įirst Sgt. Hoan Nguyen put it to the group he led through the day's events - "what Mom and Dad do every day" if they want to be fit and confident Soldiers in the United States Army.Īfter a safety briefing by Brigade Commander Col. More than 250 spouses and children took part in the 165th Wayne Day on Saturday, in an outing designed to show - as Staff Sgt. And, for several hours, the battalion commander answered to "honey" or "Dad." Soldier fathers coaxed their children to rappel down the Victory Wall. Mothers clambered up rope ladders and rolled through mud pits as their husbands pushed babies in strollers. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL 4 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL 3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL 2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. 1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S.
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