I Tried The Army
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FunTranscript
00:00 And I gotta go, 'cause that's my ride.
00:03 [dramatic music]
00:06 ♪ ♪
00:13 [fire crackling]
00:16 [dramatic music]
00:19 ♪ ♪
00:21 - So for the next 48 hours,
00:23 Michelle and Austin are gonna get a very small taste
00:25 of what it's like to be a soldier in the United States Army.
00:27 So as a part of every soldier's journey,
00:29 they learn how to become a part of a team.
00:31 One great tool on how to build teams
00:33 is through obstacle courses.
00:35 - You might be wondering how you're gonna get over these things
00:37 if you're smaller in stature,
00:38 but this is gonna be a team effort obstacle course.
00:40 You're gonna have to work together
00:41 and put your minds together.
00:42 - I was then given less than two minutes
00:44 to make a game plan with a group of people I had never met.
00:47 - I would either have to be the first one up
00:49 or the last one.
00:50 - Just keep three points of contact
00:51 when you're up there. - Okay.
00:52 - So whoever's trying to get up on the bottom,
00:54 they'll just kind of hoist yourself up,
00:55 and we'll grab you by your belt and try to get you over.
00:58 - Okay. Are you nervous?
01:00 - Yes. [laughs]
01:02 - Hurry up!
01:03 - Any damn day now. Let's go!
01:05 Grab them by their belt if you're up top.
01:08 Belt, belt!
01:09 - One, two, three. - Four!
01:11 - Move! Get to the next obstacle.
01:13 Let's go. Hurry up!
01:14 - Let's go! Hurry up!
01:15 - Over and under. It's not that hard.
01:17 - Why is it taking you so long?
01:19 - Get up there! - Bring it up!
01:21 - One, two, three! - Get up!
01:22 - Now drop back, stand up, and we're over country.
01:24 - Over country!
01:25 - Everybody has a fear of heights,
01:27 but as a member of a team,
01:28 your fear of heights almost melts away.
01:30 - Hey, say something! - Drop back!
01:32 - Encourage your team.
01:33 - You can't do this all by yourself.
01:35 - Her recognition that when I work together
01:38 as a part of a team,
01:39 I was able to accomplish so much more
01:41 than I thought as an individual.
01:42 That is an integral part of being a soldier.
01:45 - Inspirational.
01:46 I am so happy and proud of you.
01:48 - I was so surprised because we were looking
01:50 at all the obstacles, and we were like,
01:52 "We're a quite short team." - Yes.
01:54 - A height challenge.
01:55 - With four people that you've never met before,
01:58 that you spent like five minutes getting to know.
02:00 You did it, right?
02:01 I mean, at the end of it, you're like,
02:02 "Holy cow, we just did that."
02:04 - Now we're gonna move your teams over here.
02:06 It's gonna be a race between your team and your team.
02:08 Loser of the obstacle course is gonna have to do
02:10 50 push-ups each.
02:11 - 50 push-ups? - Yeah.
02:13 - You ready for this?
02:14 - You own an obstacle course!
02:16 - I can't help that I'm just a little tall.
02:17 I'm heavier, though, you know?
02:19 I have a baby hand, so I can't really grip.
02:21 - You have--you have-- give me that hand.
02:23 - Who has baby hands?
02:25 - Michelle, you ready? - Yes.
02:27 - Austin, you ready? - Always ready.
02:28 - All right. Begin.
02:30 - Let's go, Michelle. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
02:32 - Crawl all the way to the end.
02:34 Stay on your elbows. Elbows and knees.
02:37 Remember, this is a team effort.
02:38 You guys have to work as a team.
02:40 Keep coming back.
02:41 Once you get to the end here,
02:42 you're gonna stand up and go through the corral here.
02:44 - We're ahead, we're ahead! Let's go, let's go!
02:46 - Good, good, good, good, good.
02:48 - Come on, come on, you guys got it!
02:49 - Hurry up, let's go.
02:50 Run to the rope. Sprint!
02:52 First one up the rope. Let's go.
02:54 Touch the knot. Stand over here.
02:56 - A few years ago, I attempted a similar rope climb
02:59 at Marine Boot Camp, which I miserably failed.
03:03 So this time I thought I would redeem myself.
03:06 Well, I didn't.
03:07 I somehow did even worse than last time,
03:09 and I got stuck not even halfway up.
03:11 I felt like I was in fifth grade gym class
03:13 being laughed at while I was hanging on for my life.
03:16 But then I realized I wasn't being laughed at.
03:18 - You got it. You're almost there.
03:21 - I was being encouraged,
03:23 and to honor the efforts of my team,
03:25 I had to reach the top.
03:27 After finally redeeming myself
03:29 from my failed rope climb at Marine Boot Camp,
03:31 I found myself neck and neck with Austin.
03:34 Go, go, go! We're so close, we're so close!
03:36 But slowly, Austin's team began pulling ahead.
03:39 - Man, that team is smoking y'all.
03:41 Let's go, hurry up! Keep pushing.
03:43 - Almost there, baby. Almost there.
03:45 - Not giving up, I looked ahead
03:46 to see Austin's team struggling on the final obstacle.
03:49 - Come on, guys! - You guys have a chance.
03:51 Go, go, go.
03:52 Through the tube, and then you're done.
03:54 Right to the finish. Let's go!
03:56 [panting]
03:59 - Well, I think somebody owes us push-ups.
04:05 We'll count for y'all.
04:06 So my expectation is that Michelle and Austin
04:08 give it their best. They give it everything they got.
04:11 Understand that you are now a part of something much bigger.
04:14 You are part of a legacy that goes all the way back
04:16 to the foundation of our country.
04:18 It's provided me a lot of great opportunities.
04:21 I was able to get two master's degrees,
04:23 travel the world, learn foreign languages.
04:25 It has really given me more things
04:27 than I could ever really give back to it.
04:29 And so that's one of the reasons why I continue
04:32 to serve in the Army.
04:33 - As I continue my week at Fort Benning,
04:35 I need to clarify that my time here
04:37 barely scratches the surface
04:39 of what real Army soldiers go through.
04:41 But even with my limited experience,
04:43 I've been given a much greater appreciation
04:46 of their service.
04:47 - This week we're going to introduce Michelle
04:49 to airborne training, a very unique thing
04:52 that happens here on Fort Benning across the Army.
04:54 - Here in Tower Branch, they are primarily focused
04:57 on how to exit an aircraft,
04:58 which is what you guys will be testing out today,
05:03 exiting out on our 34-foot towers.
05:05 - Nice. - So we'll get you rigged up
05:07 and ready to exit the towers. - Cool.
05:12 - Parachuting in the Army has been around
05:14 since the early 1940s, when it was perfected
05:16 and the technology allowed us to perfect that.
05:18 Parachuting has proven itself as a way
05:21 to gain the upper hand in many different engagements
05:24 throughout our country's history.
05:26 - Oh! Are you a chiropractor too?
05:29 - So in order to qualify for airborne training,
05:31 you need to be high enough to take your static line
05:34 and then affix it to the anchor line cable,
05:36 which is a long cable that runs along
05:38 the long axis of an aircraft.
05:39 We'll see if Michelle makes the cut.
05:41 - I hear that there's a height requirement
05:43 to be an Army paratrooper.
05:44 - There is a height requirement,
05:45 so you can be a little shorter with longer arms,
05:48 a little taller with shorter arms.
05:49 It all works out. - How do you think I am?
05:51 - You should be able to get it. - I look good?
05:53 - Yeah, you'd be good. - Okay, yes.
05:54 - How far am I jumping? [laughs]
06:02 - Just jump out. Just jump out.
06:03 You're gonna be fine. I got you.
06:04 - Okay, so I'm just trying to leap over there.
06:06 - Yeah, jump out as far as you can.
06:08 All right, you ready? - Yeah.
06:09 - Go. As far as you can. Go!
06:12 - [screams]
06:14 - I've had students do worse.
06:18 - [gasps]
06:20 - [sighs]
06:24 That was terrifying.
06:25 When I was up there by myself,
06:27 I had so much time to get in my head about it.
06:30 But when you're with the team and all I was thinking of,
06:32 you have to go, you have to be there to support them,
06:35 then the fear was so much more.
06:37 But what I didn't know is that this was all prep
06:40 for what was about to happen next.
06:42 - One of the things that Michelle is about to experience
06:44 is the thrill of 12,500 feet
06:47 with the U.S. Army Golden Knights,
06:48 our professional parachute team.
06:50 - We are gonna equip you guys
06:51 with one of our cool Golden Knight jumpsuits here, right?
06:54 It's the latest in fall fashion.
06:56 Get it? Fall fashion? No? Come on!
06:58 - The Golden Knights signify the top level
07:01 of free-fall parachutists.
07:02 They're called the Golden Knights
07:03 for all of the gold medals they've won
07:06 in parachuting competitions.
07:08 - As we head out to the aircraft,
07:09 I ask you, please stay with your instructor.
07:10 There are two spinny things on the airplane.
07:13 Please do not walk into one of those, all right?
07:15 It's a bad day for you, bad day for me,
07:16 a lot of paperwork. Let's not do that, right?
07:18 - You mean like Syndrome and the Incredibles?
07:21 - No, not really.
07:23 We're gonna have some fun.
07:24 - I've never seen the Incredibles, so I don't know.
07:26 - That's why they don't wear capes in the Incredibles.
07:28 - 'Cause it can snag?
07:29 - 'Cause they get sucked into the propellers
07:30 when they jump out of planes. - Oh, that makes sense.
07:32 [dramatic music]
07:35 ♪ ♪
07:36 - Oh, my God, this is really nasty.
07:39 - So you've done 10,000 jumps,
07:42 and they've all been-- - Don't ask it.
07:44 - Don't ask? - Don't ask that.
07:46 ♪ ♪
07:52 - You're above the clouds!
07:55 ♪ ♪
07:57 So are we gonna fall through a cloud?
07:59 - No, that's against the rules.
08:01 - Oh.
08:02 [dramatic music]
08:05 - Clouds are always kind of our biggest nemesis
08:08 when it comes to skydiving.
08:10 It's gonna come down to, can we find the hole?
08:12 Is the hole big enough? Does it meet the FAA's requirements
08:15 to put jumpers through it?
08:17 ♪ ♪
08:22 - Too many clouds so we can't jump.
08:25 You know, I was really nervous, but I still wanted to do it.
08:29 I'm so disappointed.
08:31 - We had unexpected weather that kind of rolled in,
08:33 which caused us to make a very difficult decision,
08:35 but one that was necessary, because while we develop soldiers,
08:38 we want to give them an interesting experience,
08:40 we also want to do that in a safe manner,
08:41 so we had to make a safety call there.
08:43 - Though we were disappointed we couldn't jump yet,
08:46 they kept us occupied by letting us play with their tanks.
08:48 - Coming out here, we're gonna actually introduce you
08:50 to the tank so that that way you actually see
08:52 what we have working for us.
08:53 It's actually a $6.3 million piece of machinery.
08:56 - Oh, my gosh. - Weighs about 82 tons
08:57 as it's weighed right now.
08:59 - So this leads down into the inside, is that right?
09:02 - Yes, well, that is the driver's compartment,
09:04 so he actually lays back in almost like a lazy boy setup,
09:07 leaning backward and looking up into his periscopes
09:10 to be able to see forward.
09:11 - Oh, my gosh! - So he has three periscopes.
09:13 - It has a-- - We do have windshield wipers, yes.
09:14 - Mini windshield wipers. - Yes, we do have windshield wipers.
09:17 ♪ ♪
09:19 - For something so big, I like the tiny details.
09:22 - Right? - Can I?
09:23 - Climb up on it? Yes.
09:25 - The whole purpose in the tank is to actually carry around
09:27 the M256 120-millimeter main cannon.
09:30 - This perspective is crazy.
09:32 Behind? Oh, my gosh.
09:33 - So that allows us to engage those targets
09:35 with fairly pinpoint accuracy out to about 5,000 meters.
09:38 It's usually about a second, second and a half
09:39 of flight time, and that's it.
09:41 - Ooh!
09:42 [explosion]
09:44 [panting]
09:46 It's crazy how quickly the projectile moves
09:48 to hit the target, but then there are always
09:50 a few seconds of delay before you actually hear the explosion.
09:54 Have you ever fired a tank in combat?
09:57 - I have. - You have?
09:58 - I spent 15 months in Iraq during OAF-5
10:00 with 164 out of Fort Stewart, Georgia.
10:02 So when an AK-47 hits this, it really doesn't make much of a dent.
10:05 You hear popcorn going on outside, and that's about it.
10:07 You don't feel it. You don't feel any vibrations
10:09 in the armor or anything like that,
10:10 but when an RPG goes off next to you, you know it.
10:13 - That's scary. - Not so bad.
10:15 If you're inside the tank, it's not so bad.
10:16 - Yeah, you-- - If you're outside, yes, very scary.
10:18 - You got the--you got the door shut at that point.
10:20 - The hatches? Yes, absolutely. - Yes, the hatches.
10:22 [dramatic music]
10:24 [alarm blaring]
10:25 With the weather still not cooperating
10:27 for a safe skydive, we then headed over to the firing range.
10:30 I am a part of the Army Marksmanship Unit.
10:33 One of the many things that we do is go out to different competitions,
10:36 nationally and internationally, in the Olympic Games
10:39 and the Paralympic Games as well.
10:41 - So you are a full-time athlete for the Army.
10:44 - You could say that, I guess. [laughs]
10:46 - That is incredible. - Yeah.
10:48 So all of those lessons or all those weapon systems
10:50 used for competition are now being put into
10:53 what can be used for combat scenarios.
10:55 They then proceeded to hand me a series of firearms,
10:58 which I did not know how to react to because I'm awkward.
11:03 - Thank you. - Yeah.
11:06 - What am I going to be using today?
11:09 - So you're gonna be shooting the Mark 12.
11:12 - So it's basically an M16 with a higher-quality barrel,
11:15 a better trigger, and a suppressor.
11:17 - So we're gonna actually watch them shoot up here,
11:19 and you'll get to see how they can test some of the accuracy.
11:21 - Inside? - Yes.
11:23 - Oh, my gosh.
11:24 - So what we have here is a 300-yard range
11:26 with electronic target downrange.
11:28 The little red lights that you see out the front here,
11:30 those are chronograph screens.
11:31 - Can I check it out? - Yep, yep.
11:33 It'll give us the muscle velocity.
11:35 - It looks like the doors in "Monsters, Inc."
11:37 Like, you could go through, and you're in a kid's bedroom,
11:39 ready to scare 'em.
11:41 So you get instant digital feedback on your accuracy.
11:44 - Yes. - That is so...
11:46 [door slams]
11:48 - Careful. - Yep.
11:49 - Stand by.
11:51 - Oh, my gosh.
11:53 [gunfire]
11:56 Perfect.
12:03 [gunfire]
12:05 - Oh! - Nice.
12:07 - Wow! So I'm going to do that?
12:10 - Yes. - Okay.
12:11 - And after firing off a few test rounds...
12:14 - Whoo! - Not bad, though, right?
12:16 [gunfire]
12:18 - Ooh! - Perfect. - Yay!
12:20 - It was my turn for redemption against Austin
12:22 in a good old-fashioned shoot-off.
12:24 - All right, here we go. Stand by.
12:27 [upbeat music]
12:30 ♪ ♪
12:37 ♪ ♪
12:43 ♪ ♪
12:48 - Man, I wish we had won.
12:51 - I want to point out, Michelle said,
12:53 on the last course of fire with the pistol, one hand.
12:55 She must have strong front delts, and I don't,
12:58 so I had to use both hands.
13:00 - After losing yet again to Austin "Baby Hands" Alexander,
13:03 the weather was still prohibiting us from doing the skydive.
13:05 But because, you know, we don't disappoint,
13:08 a week later, Austin and I flew all the way
13:11 to Fort Bragg in North Carolina
13:13 to meet up again with the Golden Knights.
13:16 - Colonel Battle's sending us off again.
13:18 Came all the way in from Kentucky.
13:19 - Always. - Just to throw us out a plane.
13:21 - Always. - [laughs]
13:22 - You ready, Austin? - Always ready.
13:25 [upbeat music]
13:28 ♪ ♪
13:35 ♪ ♪
13:42 ♪ ♪
13:49 [screaming]
13:52 - If you like this video, be sure to give it a thumbs-up
13:54 and subscribe, and we'll see you
13:56 for the next "Challenge Accepted."
13:58 - Whoo! [laughs]
14:00 Oh, my God.
14:02 ♪ ♪
14:08 (upbeat music)