After plunging into the chilly pool, and making it onboard two life rafts, the remainder of the evolution provides a measure of rest for the recruits. As the water on the deck rises, facilitators watch to make sure they handle each container as if it contained a live round. As the last steel case is safely placed on its rack, the stopwatch clicks. 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.