Read The Infinity Brigade #1 Stone Cold for Free Online Page B

problem.
    One of the reasons I encouraged us to work as a team was because it became immediately obvious that those platoons that did not… ended up doing more pushups and running more laps. Also, it seemed different soldiers were better at different things. I needed everybody to be great at everything so I began to pair up recruits who could help one another. Sometimes this worked, and unfortunately sometimes it did not.
    Private McDullis was an example of the second. He would ultimately cost me my acting commission as an ensign but I did not know it at the time… and if I had, I honestly don’t think I could or would have done anything differently. In the end, he would be the second recruit to wash out.
    Sam McDullis should have had everything going for him. Physically he was middle of the road… not the strongest or fastest but solidly in the middle of the pack. From a marksmanship point of view he was one of the best distance people we had. He struggled with fast moving targets and he needed some work in that area but again he was in the mix with the rest of the platoon. Academically he was ahead of the game. He had managed to give me a run for my money on every written test that we had taken and I had the top grades across all four platoons in the company.
    As I said, Sam should have been a shoo-in. A common misperception is that Boot Camp is designed to weed out those that can’t cut it. The fact is, in the Marines, that job is done by the recruiter. Unlike many of the other branches of the service, the recruiter is evaluated on how successful his recruits are. If a man or woman is unlikely to make it through Boot Camp then the recruiter is unlikely to allow them to try because they would tarnish his recruiting record.
    I knew that the Drills would make our lives miserable but at the end of the day they would work with us to whip us into something worthy to be called a Marine.  I don’t think Sam ever got this. I paired Sam with JJ Hammond. This two men were polar opposites. Where JJ was gregarious and outgoing… Sam was a recluse. JJ never failed to find the humor in a situation. Sam never failed to miss the potential downside. My hope was that they could balance each other out because both were headed for trouble if they didn’t find some way to mitigate their more extreme tendencies.
    The final day of our second week this had come to a head when Sam flatly refused to participate in an exercise designed to build co-dependent team work. The bottom line was he was too afraid to trust anyone but himself.
    We were scaling a wall in a two gravity field. A safety line was attached to each recruit. The line was attached to a pulley which had a grappling hook on it. The idea was to fold the rope in half with the grappling hook and pulley on the folded end. The hook would be tossed over the top of the wall. A soldier would secure one end of the free rope to his climbing belt and begin the accent. The other soldier would hold the second part of the line and remove slack as the first soldier ascended.  Once they got to the top, the second soldier would make his or her way up while the soldier already at the top would take up the slack in their assist rope. The scheme worked best when you sent the strongest person up first.
    Because we were dealing with a 2G field it was essential that the each soldier assist the other whenever such assistance was requested. It was a tough climb and, with the exception of myself, Jesus Ramirez, and JJ Hammond, everyone needed several goes to make it the first time. I stood at the top of the wall and watched Sam and JJ struggle with the obstacle course.
    JJ muscled his way to the top but it was obvious that Sam wasn’t even tending the rope. Had JJ fallen it was unlikely Sam would have been able to arrest his fall. I was furious but yelling in the middle of JJ’s climb might well have gotten my friend hurt.
    Once JJ was at the top. I told the two of them to stand in place while I