Photo By Staff Sgt. Abrey Liggins | Marines gather for a celebratory photo after the completion of the endurance course at...... read more read more
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Marines with 8th Engineer Support Battalion participated in an endurance course to increase unit cohesion at the Battle Skills Training School on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, March 10, 2017.
The endurance course is a 3.5 mile trail made difficult by several obstacles that Marines must negotiate as a squad before completing. Some of the obstacles include scaling tall walls, rope-swinging, and crawling underneath barbed-wire. Most of the course is covered in mud, which forces the team to put forth maximum effort.
“I feel accomplished,” said LCpl. Matthew Dykes, an embarkation specialist with 8th ESB. “It was a very rough obstacle course and honestly it was really fun. I just enjoyed my time doing it.”
The course began with a short crawl through muddy, shallow water. Once out of the water, the team approached a wall, and on the other side, several logs and a few meters of barbed-wire for the Marines to crawl under.
They discovered early that they needed to work together in order to successfully complete the course.
“You’re going to get dirty and it’s going to get really slippery,” said Dykes. “You just really have to take your time, pay attention to detail and help out the Marines right beside you.”
Dykes said that he found it easy to work with Marines he was familiar with, and he was happy he knew a lot of members in his squad.
“Whenever you’re going through an obstacle course and you’re going through hard times with people,” said Dykes, “it just makes it a lot easier.”
The course featured many mental and physical challenges. Sgt. Joseph Gray, a maintenance management clerk with 8th ESB, said the physical aspect of the course came easy, but the cold weather turned it into a mental test.
“I can handle most physical stuff,” said Gray, “but if it’s cold, it’s pretty miserable.”
Some of the obstacles forced Marines to work together, mostly with unfamiliar faces. Gray said that by working with others, you learn more about them, which helps build unit cohesion.
“It was fun,” said Gray. “I had a blast. I would do it again tomorrow if I could.”
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2017 09:02 |
| Story ID: | 227007 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 59 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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