In April 1968, the potentially dangerous confidence course was a concern to our company at Fort Bragg, N.C. As I saw my low crawl buddies moving out, I figured if I held my M-14 in line with my body, I could just roll all the way to the end. I finished cleanly, but was surprised when the sergeant with good night vision said, "Go back and do it again."

I prepared to return to the beginning.

"Go back the way that you came," he said.

I met lots of my buddies face-to-face, each one quizzed if I was disoriented.

Eventually, I reached the "start" and repeated the crawl correctly. At 72, if drafted again, I will do it correctly the first time.