Forrestal Escape Scuttle Teamwork is building and the Sailors fly through this event as if they had been practicing for weeks. Covering the simulated hot metal with their fire-retardant seabags, crewmembers pass through one at a time, slowing only to simulate cooling the seabags with water from their canteens. Observers are impressed. As the company double-times to the confidence course, the facilitator suddenly detours to the quarter mile track surrounding the building. They run two laps before entering and being ordered into gas masks.
Many masks quickly fog up.
Lawrence is escorted through the confidence course by a facilitator, and told where his team will take its two 150-pound mannequins. The event is one of pure misery. Already breathing hard from the run and the gas masks, the recruits carry, drag and lift the mannequin through the course. Pitch black tunnels are followed by passages strung with rope, which snag Sailor and mannequin alike. They make good progress - until they hit the final obstacle.