Jacob James, 19, eyed the makeshift rope bridge in front of him at Parris Island, a Marine Corps training location in South Carolina. The obstacle was part of the Crucible, a demanding 54-hour exercise that new service members must complete to officially become Marines.
For this part of the exercise, James was in charge of 15 of his peers, both men and women. The bridge consisted of just two ropes—one for their feet and one above their heads to hang on to. Their goal was to move six 30-pound ammunition cans across it.
The team had not worked together before, even though they were all from the same unit, Bravo Company. The company’s roughly 330