John P. Wildman

Listen to the interview:

John: "You had to go down there [to the gym] and you had a strength test in which there was a whole series of things you were put through like sit ups and all sorts of things like that. Some of them, you'd have how many you could do in a given time … and always the one I remember the most: at the very end they had a big thick rope … that went up to the ceiling of the gymnasium which was probably about 18 feet tall and you had to shimmy up that. Now, you didn't have to get to the top but you had to go to a certain distance to it…. but if you failed that, numerically, you were back with the fleet. There was no excuse. If you were not keeping up with them physically, you were back to the fleet."

Download complete transcript of interview.