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| Ambrea Johnson, 9, right, and sister Aijah, 7, bottom, put on camouflage paint with the help from Pfc. Kenneth Crim during Sunday's 4-H Club visit to a Fort Huachuca obstacle course. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
Youngsters conquer obstacles on fort, learn team concept
Herald/Review
FORT HUACHUCA — “The emphasis today is on teamwork,” Lt. Robert Parker advised about 30 eager-eyed 4-H’ers Sunday morning at the Robert C. Sheetz Jr. Warrior Complex. The kids had other ideas.
With the gusto and general fearlessness of youth, the boys and girls charged through the grueling obstacle course with one goal in mind: to do it — and have fun in the process. There was little evidence of teamwork.
After a walk-through with some of the 20 soldiers of the 504th Signal Battalion who gave up their Sunday morning to help out, 13-year-old Chelsea LaQuey, a Coronado Middle School student, assessed the challenge.
“The ropes look hard,” LaQuey said.
Starting in packs, the youngsters had to handle a short jump into a sandpit, scrambling over a low wall, a cautious walk on horizontal logs over a sandpit, swinging ahead on monkey bars, crawling through metal culverts, scaling a slippery high wall and descending the other side by ropes, hurdling a 3-foot trench, walking over a series of wooden rails set as balance beams, more logs over a pit, another low wall, crossing a pit by rope while hanging upside-down, weaving through an obstacle course and another set of culverts before the finish.
Like the others, including soldiers demonstrating the technique, LaQuey struggled with the high wall and ropes, but made it over with a look of accomplishment on her face.
“It was fun,” LaQuey concluded, even though she said it was the hardest part of the course for her.
As part of preparation for a five-county 4-H gathering at Huachuca Oaks Baptist Camp in February, the youths followed up a night camping in tipis with the obstacle course for “team-building and to build leadership goals,” said 4-H Youth Development Agent Darcy Tessman.
The youths, ages 10 to 18, hailed from Cochise, Santa Cruz, Graham, Greenlee and Pima counties. But a 7-year-old, Aijah Johnson of Col. Johnson Elementary School boldly got into the challenge and did whatever she could manage. The monkey bars, for example, were way beyond her reach.
“The best part was the climbing,” she said.
Christian Buchanan, 14, of Valley Union High School in Elfrida, singled out the upside-down rope crossing as his favorite.
The one thing no one wanted to do was apply camouflage paint to their faces after the first run-through.
“I have school tomorrow,” a voice piped up from the rear of the group.
Parker did his best to get the kids interested.
“The motivation is good,” Parker said in assessing the first effort. “But the motivation level has to get better.”
The motivation, apparently, was to come from the camouflage paint — to look the part of a warrior.
The kids weren’t buying it.
Many of them just wanted to do it again.
Within minutes after her second run-through, Kayla Buchanan, 13, of Elfrida was eager to do it again. For her, the balance beams were best and the ropes the hardest. A quick drink of water and she was off and running again.
It was the second time this year for 4-H kids to tackle the obstacle course, Tessman said. It was part of a five-county camp held last February.
Why the military involvement?
“Every Army installation has to have 4-H clubs,” Tessman explained, but the kids on post don’t have many opportunities to interact with other kids from off the post. Plus, many off-post kids never get into the fort and have no idea what’s there.
“We do this so people know they can get on post,” Tessman said. And there was another reason. “To demystify the whole military lifestyle,” Tessman said.
Who knows what the laughing and playing kids thought of that? But one of the volunteer soldiers was heard commenting to another that, “We should have a recruiter right here.”
The volunteers seemed to enjoy the experience as much as the kids.
“It’s good for us to get out here and work with the kids,” Parker said.
Herald/Review reporter Michael Sullivan can be reached at 515-4682 or by e-mail at michael.sullivan@svherald.com.
Travis Watkins, 13, of McNeil receives assistance from Cap. James Tolbert, right, from the 269th Signal Battalion and Spc. Robert Altman, above, as he scales the ropes on an obstacle course Sunday on Fort Huachuca. Watkins and a group of southeastern Arizona 4-H Club members spent part of the day going through the obstacle course assisted by volunteers from the fort. (Mark Levy Herald/Review)