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CNN Live Saturday
Can You Survive Endurance Training West Point Style?
Aired January 18, 2003 - 18:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of people make plans to shape up in the New Year, but resolutions to shed a few pounds are one thing and meeting the military standard for physical fitness, well, that's quite another thing. Could you actually survive the same kind of endurance test cadets face at West Point?
CNN's Whitney Casey is in New York where some of the die-hard athletes are taking the challenge. Whitney, you know earlier Daryn was surrounded by food and you're surrounded by men today, and I'm just wondering what I did wrong.
CASEY: Exactly...
(CROSSTALK)
CASEY: ... but I don't think you'd want to be surrounded by this woman right here. She looks so nice and diminutive and cute, but -- and she fits the aid (ph) and her name is "Dr. Death," so don't let her fool you because she and her husband, Bob, here created this obstacle course that is sort of a simulation of what you would actually go through at West Point, if you were a cadet.
They train 27,000 cadets in a combined 40 years there. So, we're going to, with no further ado, try part of the course. Bob is going to be the play-by-play, and I'm actually going to challenge 58-year- old Bonnie, and I know that's no joke. I'm 28, so it should be really funny. OK, here we go. So, Bob, all right, going to start -- and these are the participants right here. OK, here we go, ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, they're getting ready to go...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first part they're going to go through, agility series...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... side roll. They're doing a side roll. All of these are balances like you're crossing a stream in a combative situation...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now coming up to the next part here, crawling underneath the wire... (CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... barbed wire and doing it, running around the ropes and jumping over a ledge -- it can be a rock wall or anything else like that, then climbing a cargo net. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very specific kind of skill in order to be able to do this. When they get to the top I'm going to yell hurrah -- whoever makes it up there first. It's getting very close...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting very close...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go -- here we go...
(CROSSTALK)
CASEY: We've only actual gone -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we've only actual...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, I think that's it.
CASEY: ... we've only completed about...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurrah.
CASEY: I'd say 30 seconds of the course. Bonnie, you said that this is not -- this is not even half of what they do at West Point.
BONNIE STAUFFER: No, this is -- in fact, the cargo net is used as a way that you can't climb the ropes. You have to climb the cargo net to get on top of the shelf, so this is a fallback position.
CASEY: Fallback position.
STAUFFER: Fallback...
CASEY: And how long -- this is what the freshmen have to go through at West Point, right?
STAUFFER: Actually, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) obstacle course test, they take that class every -- that test freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year.
CASEY: And you developed this?
STAUFFER: No, no, actually the in-door obstacle course test has been around for quite a few years.
CASEY: And what's the biggest complaint? What do they like the least about this whole thing (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? STAUFFER: The thing they like the least is probably the shelf or the wall, and we don't have either one of those events here.
CASEY: Thank you -- can you believe that she beat me? She's 58 and she's kicking everybody's butt here. Back to you Carol.
LIN: And I didn't do a thing, and I'm out of breath.
(CROSSTALK)
LIN: Thanks so much. Whitney Casey with the cadets. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) she was 58.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 18, 2003 - 18:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of people make plans to shape up in the New Year, but resolutions to shed a few pounds are one thing and meeting the military standard for physical fitness, well, that's quite another thing. Could you actually survive the same kind of endurance test cadets face at West Point?
CNN's Whitney Casey is in New York where some of the die-hard athletes are taking the challenge. Whitney, you know earlier Daryn was surrounded by food and you're surrounded by men today, and I'm just wondering what I did wrong.
CASEY: Exactly...
(CROSSTALK)
CASEY: ... but I don't think you'd want to be surrounded by this woman right here. She looks so nice and diminutive and cute, but -- and she fits the aid (ph) and her name is "Dr. Death," so don't let her fool you because she and her husband, Bob, here created this obstacle course that is sort of a simulation of what you would actually go through at West Point, if you were a cadet.
They train 27,000 cadets in a combined 40 years there. So, we're going to, with no further ado, try part of the course. Bob is going to be the play-by-play, and I'm actually going to challenge 58-year- old Bonnie, and I know that's no joke. I'm 28, so it should be really funny. OK, here we go. So, Bob, all right, going to start -- and these are the participants right here. OK, here we go, ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, they're getting ready to go...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first part they're going to go through, agility series...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... side roll. They're doing a side roll. All of these are balances like you're crossing a stream in a combative situation...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now coming up to the next part here, crawling underneath the wire... (CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... barbed wire and doing it, running around the ropes and jumping over a ledge -- it can be a rock wall or anything else like that, then climbing a cargo net. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very specific kind of skill in order to be able to do this. When they get to the top I'm going to yell hurrah -- whoever makes it up there first. It's getting very close...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting very close...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go -- here we go...
(CROSSTALK)
CASEY: We've only actual gone -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we've only actual...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, I think that's it.
CASEY: ... we've only completed about...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurrah.
CASEY: I'd say 30 seconds of the course. Bonnie, you said that this is not -- this is not even half of what they do at West Point.
BONNIE STAUFFER: No, this is -- in fact, the cargo net is used as a way that you can't climb the ropes. You have to climb the cargo net to get on top of the shelf, so this is a fallback position.
CASEY: Fallback position.
STAUFFER: Fallback...
CASEY: And how long -- this is what the freshmen have to go through at West Point, right?
STAUFFER: Actually, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) obstacle course test, they take that class every -- that test freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year.
CASEY: And you developed this?
STAUFFER: No, no, actually the in-door obstacle course test has been around for quite a few years.
CASEY: And what's the biggest complaint? What do they like the least about this whole thing (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? STAUFFER: The thing they like the least is probably the shelf or the wall, and we don't have either one of those events here.
CASEY: Thank you -- can you believe that she beat me? She's 58 and she's kicking everybody's butt here. Back to you Carol.
LIN: And I didn't do a thing, and I'm out of breath.
(CROSSTALK)
LIN: Thanks so much. Whitney Casey with the cadets. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) she was 58.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
