Air Assault School: My favorite animal.

On the second day of training on the rappel tower at Air Assault school, we were instructed to hook ourselves into the tower once the Air Assault Sergeants OK'd us to get into position. Now, it's somewhat difficult to hook yourself in properly if you've never done it before and have only watched Sergeants do it for you. It's impossible to do it while you're belay man (the guy watching your descent, ready to pull your line taut if you begin to fall - a safety mechanism at Air Assault school) is hanging onto the rope and pulling on it.

I get into the kneeling position and try to hook myself into the rope. The rope won't budge. "Slack!" I yell to my belay man. He relents, for about 2 seconds, and I've only pulled about an inch of rope free. I repeat this about 14 times until I finally get hooked in, only each time I yelled slack and my belay man relented, I had eventually pulled about 2 more feet of rope than I had needed. Then the order came to get into the "L-shaped" (rappelling start point) position. I look at my rope and realize if I attempt the L-shape, I'm falling backwards immediately as there is too much slack.

"Air Assault Sergeant, I think I have too much slack."
"Well, would you look at that. HEY SGT. ADAMS...WE'VE GOT A POSSUM!"

SGT Adams runs over.

"I think we do."
"Go on, get into the L-Shape Air Assault. Here, I'll assist you."

The Air Assault Sergeant then pulled my rope tight and held it there with his own body weight. I begin to put myself in the L-shape, locking out my knees and leaning my ass over the edge of the tower.

My initial instructor just looks at SGT Adams and says "Why the fuck are you helping him?"
"You're right, why am I?

And at that cue, he let's go. I tumble backwards, like a diver entering the water from a boat (if you've ever seen a Discovery Channel special on underwater exploration, you'll know what I mean). I don't let go of my brake hand, in fact I hold onto it for dear life, and I end up 5 feet down the rope, hanging completely upside down.

Air Assault Sergeant: "WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?"
Me: "The Possum, Air Assault Sergeant, the Possum!"
Him: "Would you like to right yourself?"
Me: "YES!"
Him: "Straighten out your knees and you should be fine."

I listen to him and I right myself, I then begin my descent as normal.

Possuming happens a few times every class, I've been told, so I don't really mind. In fact, I'm so fucked up I thought it was pretty damn fun. I would actually Possum again on purpose in the future just because it's one of the weirdest and adrenaline pumping feelings.