FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Seven interns led 27 Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation employees and Soldiers on the rapids of the Arkansas River June 1 for the inaugural white-water rafting trip of the summer.
"This is the first rafting trip of the season," said Rick Kuper, manager, Information Management Branch, DFMWR. "So if we die, we just get more people and the Army doesn't lose Soldiers."
Each year as a new wave of college-aged interns begin work at the Outdoor Recreation Center, employees from DFMWR are invited to be the first to test the waters and the new recruits' skills.
"We're ready to go," said Luke McBride, intern and student at Missouri State University. "We've been training (for rafting) for the last three weeks."
The interns were confident with 50 hours of training on the river in swift-water rescue, raft flips and practice navigating the rapids.
Each intern teamed up with an employee from the Outdoor Rec Center to guide the rafters on the
10-mile stretch of water, which featured class II and III rapids such as "Chicken Lips," "Shark's Tooth," "Spike Buck" and "Double Dip."
Before the six boats drifted down the river, guides went over paddling and safety techniques.
"The theme of today -- stay in the boat," said Arielle Huettner, intern and student at East Stroudsburg University, Penn. "If you fall out of the boat, get back in the boat."
The advice served rafters well.
"Our whole boat flipped," said Cynthia Flores, administration officer, DFMWR. "We were under the boat. My survival instincts kicked in and I got myself to the surface."
Flores lost a shoe in the process while Jeff Turner, a family member of a DFMWR employee, lost his splash jacket.
"I was drudging the bottom of my (rear) on the bottom of the river," said Turner after the excursion. "It was a good time. It's a good story now."
Turner said that while he enjoyed the trip, rafting might not be in his future.
"My mom didn't raise a dummy," he said. "Rafting -- not something I need to be doing. Got it."
His mother, Nancy Turner, said she would raft again despite being dumped in the drink.
"I just remember getting pulled into the boat," said Nancy Turner, management support for the Business Division, DFMWR.
Tim Wise, intern and raft guide for Flores and the Turners, said he learned a valuable lesson on the river.
"Don't dunk customers," he said. "Customers don't like to swim through class III rapids."
As punishment, Wise will wear the "shorts of shame," which Outdoor Rec employees say are extremely tiny and unattractive. Wise said he's earned the nickname "The Dunkster."
Despite joining the Arkansas River "varsity swim team," Flores said she would raft again.
"I would even have the same guide," she said.
Other raft enthusiasts agreed -- the guides made the trip.
Cpl. Rachael Robertson, president, Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers, said she rafted last summer with an outside company, but didn't enjoy the experience.
"I've been rafting before, but it was boring," she said. "I didn't go with Outdoor Rec. I liked my guide on this trip. He made it fun. Even if the water is low, if you have a good guide that makes the trip."
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