Faith called Lilith right before final formation, and Lilith pulled up just as the formation was ending. She was wearing sneakers, sweatpants, a larger “MACON UNIVERSITY” sweatshirt, a red knit had and black gloves as insulation against the cold. The members of 5th platoon wore their winter PT uniform of gray sweats, black leather gloves, a black watch cap, and a reflective PT belt.
After the formation broke up, 5th Platoon drifted over to the PT pit on the far side of the parking lot, and Lilith joined them there. The pit contained a set of pullup bars, a situp area, and a large contraption made of telephone poles, from which two 30’ ropes dangled. After the first and last formations of the day, the platoon adjourned to the pit for pullups and a rope climb. The 101st “Airborne” Division was actually an Air Assault unit, and a significant portion of Air Assault School involved climbing a rope. Faith never quite got that, since in an actual air assault you’re sliding down the rope not climbing up it… but whatever. Practicing the rope climbs helped the platoon’s new arrivals prepare for the course.
There was no formality at all to it; everyone knew the drill. While some individuals mounted the pullup bars, others queued up for the rope. The ones who were waiting stamped and shuffled to try to help ward off the cold.
The hardest part of climbing a rope in this weather, Faith mused, was the effect that the cold had on one’s hands. In order to get a good grip on the rope, most people (Faith included) had to strip off their gloves. And of course when that happened, it exposed one’s hands to the cold, making the hands turn numb and increasing the difficulty of the climb.
Climbing a rope was all about technique, and Faith’s technique was to use his legs more than his arms anyway, so his hands were basically just used to hold himself in place when he repositioned his legs during the climb. Lilith watched as Faith easily made his way up the rope, slapped the bar at the top, and then shimmied back down. The roped were close together, and some of the Soldiers would race each other to the stop. Seeing Lilith watching the action, Sergeant Spence asked her if she wanted to give it a go. She jumped at the chance, and climbed the rope using the hand-over-hand technique, which was harder than the leg-based “inchworm” that Faith and many of the other Soldiers used.
When Lilith got done with her first climb, she took a rope in each hand and was able to pull herself halfway up the ropes using that technique before she tired and let herself back down. That technique required a level of upper body strength as well as a degree of coordination that most people didn’t possess. Only a couple of men in the platoon could do it. The Soldiers were impressed.
“Show off,” Faith joked to Lilith after she finished her second climb. She just smiled.
There was only one Soldier in the entire platoon who couldn’t make the climb. Try as he might, Private Thigpen just couldn’t climb the rope. He was weak in the upper body and had not sufficiently practiced the majority-legs “inchworm” technique. Faith wasn’t particularly concerned about this. In fact, most of the young private that came to the company couldn’t do it, because it’s not something that a lot of people do prior to joining the Army. Faith certainly never did.
That sentiment didn’t save Thigpen from getting cajoled by his platoon mates, though. “Thigpen, you suck. Even that girl can climb a rope, and you can’t.” Faith didn’t intervene. Sometimes negative peer pressure worked wonders on someone’s motivation.
After the rope climb, the platoon moved across the street to the outdoor basketball court for the game. The court was set up with six hoops, and during warm weather it was usually jam packed with Soldiers and family members. With today’s wind and bitter cold, however, it was deserted. The young Soldiers in 5th Platoon had been running their mouths for weeks about how they could take the “old men” in a full court game. The original intent was for the four youngest Soldiers in the platoon were going to play the four oldest. The young players were all quite good. Faith and Ellery were also good players, but the other two oldest members of the platoon, Staff Sergeant Spencer and Staff Sergeant Watkins, were mediocre at best. And playing full court gave the younger men, who benefitted from greater stamina, more of an advantage.
At 22 years old, Lilith was shocked that she made the cut for the “old people team.” But the Infantry was largely a young man’s game. The Young Bucks, as they called themselves, were 21 and younger. Faith was in his mid-20s, and Sergeants Spence and Miller were in their early thirties, and Ellery was, of course, the oldest at 37. The average age in the platoon was 23, and it was only that high because Ellery was an outlier.
Faith insisted on letting Lilith play, but the Young Bucks were reluctant. First of all, they didn’t want to play against a girl. Especially the LT’s girlfriend. If something happened to her, the LT might get mad at them. They also didn’t want to take on a fifth player, because the only other person in the platoon under 22 was Private Thigpen. And Thigpen, of course, was going to be a liability.
“Look, my girlfriend came all the way up from Georgia and I don’t want her sitting around getting cold why I school you in basketball,” Faith explained to the other team. “Besides, she’s just a girl. You all aren’t afraid to play against a girl, are you?” That proved to be a winning argument. The Young Bucks decided that the liability of Thigpen was offset by the Old Fogeys having a girl on their team. So now the match was set.
Now there were two things that Faith didn’t mention to his troops about Lilith. The first was that she was gymnast in her younger days. The other was that she was on a competitive intramural basketball team back at school. If she wasn’t so focused on her studies, she probably could have made the women’s team. Faith already knew that she was going to have no problems doing a rope climb, and she was probably going to put on a clinic on the basketball court.
The two teams sized each other up. Faith was guarded by a young troop with quick feet and fast hands. Faith found him almost impossible to guard. So in the time-honored tradition of old men everywhere, he started fouling the shit out of his opponent. It wasn’t anything flagrant or malicious, just a little hand check here, a little shirt grab there, a little hip check during a rebound. It might have gotten called in a college game, but it wasn’t going to get called out in street ball. Seeing her as the least threat, Thigpen was assigned to guard Lilith. This was a bad mismatch, and the first time she had the ball, she did a ball fake that caused him to leave his feet, and she then drove in for an easy basket. The Young Bucks won the first game, but it was best out of three games to 11 baskets. The Old Fogeys eked out a win in the second game, sending things to a third and final game.
Thigpen quickly established himself as the weak link on the Young Bucks team, and the Old Fogeys exploited it mercilessly. The Young Bucks tried switching from a man on man defense to a zone, but it didn’t help. In the last game, the Fogeys began to pull ahead.
Faith had expected that the rest of the platoon to hold their own game on the other court, but the Young Bucks vs. Old Fogeys was so entertaining that they stood on the sidelines and watched… and cheered, heckled, and/or coached the players. Despite his best efforts, the man Faith was assigned to guard was the highest-scoring player on either team. He was just too good. The problem was, his supporting cast wasn’t giving him much help. The Fogeys had several scorers. Faith wasn’t sure how many she put up, but Lilith had found her stride in the game and was scoring pretty regularly.
Thigpen lurched to catch up, and launching himself from the ground, swatted full force at the ball.
She switched hands mid-air in order to make the shot, which caused Thigpen’s hand to miss the ball entirely… and land squarely in Lilith’s face. Stunned, she fell on the ground. Blood immediately erupted from her nose. She rolled onto her side, using her shirt to try to stem the flow.
This, of course, brought the game to a screeching halt. Specialist Stringer, who was standing near the goal when this happened, was furious. “You did that on purpose!” he screamed at Thigpen. Faith wasn’t so sure. From his standpoint, it looked like a simple, if painful, foul. Things like this were going to happen when you played with Joe…
Faith ran to Lilith’s side and kneed down beside her. “I’m OK… I’m OK… ,” she kept saying, although it was clear she wasn’t. She kept the top of her t-shirt pressed against her face and maneuvered first into a sitting position and then, with some of the other players’ help, to her feet. Her nose was bloody, her eyes were puffy, and she was crying. It wasn’t heaving sobs, but the tears were there. Faith got it. The cold weather made skin more sensitive, and catching a hard foul in the face like that would make anyone tear up. Once she was fully on her feet, the platoon medic gave her face a quick look.
“Might be broken,” he offered unhelpfully. “She needs to get it checked out. She’s definitely going to have two black eyes,” was his prognosis. “Sir, you should take her over to the TMC and see Doc Stone, he’ll check her out and get her fixed up.”
“Thigpen, get your ass over here,” Faith heard Corporal Laser say as he pulled away to take Lilith to the TMC. “You made the LT’s girlfriend cry…”
1) Was Faith out of line in allowing his girlfriend to participate in platoon activities? What should his reaction have been to her catching that hard foul?
2) Do you think Thigpen hit Lilith on purpose?
