Fort Bragg
Besides Coletta – always a little out of the game, because of the very different course he was following, gradually within Baker team B two very different groups emerged.
Ortega, Jorgenson, Rambo and Barry were the ones 'with their heads screwed on', or the grinds of the group.
On the other side, Danforth, Messner and Krakauer were the hot heads, those of booze, joints and even hookers, sometimes.
Despite being a shy guy, Krakauer befriended them anyway. He used to talk very little, and never talked about himself or his past, as if he had something to hide.
He and Danforth - who during the selection process had put their lives at risk while coming down from a very dangerous canyon – had become very close friends by then.
They were two very similar kinds of people, and were living those months of very hard work out with the very same and very simple attitude: the surviving one.
Their aim was to 'survive' the physical tasks and be promoted at the exams day by day, without ever thinking about tomorrow.
On the contrary, Ortega, Rambo, Barry and Coletta (and in a lesser way Jorgenson too), were the 'true believers'.
Trautman had literally won them over, body and mind
Those guys were hanging from Trautman's words every day, and often from Garner's too.
The three hot heads deeply admired Trautman too, but learning his teachings were enough for them, and nothing more than that.
The case apart, as already mentioned, was the designated marksman Coletta.
To him, it was like being some kind of alien inside the Baker team B.
All of the team's guys, even the most serious ones – Ortega included – used to let themselves go freely, mostly when they were together in town, during their leave.
They used to drink beer, sing and try to befriend some local girls.
But Coletta always used to act more seriously than the others.
He used to behave as if he was a couple of years older than all of the others, even if he wasn't.
While the other guys were having fun, he just stayed on his own in a corner, looking at his friends with a smile on his face.
Anyway he too – just like the others of the 'true believers', didn’t approve of Danforth and Messner's night-time exploits.
Sometimes he looked even less well-disposed than Ortega himself, who sometimes used to act like a proper strict father.
When Team B used to walk back to the base, after a weekend leave, Ortega was always the first to tell the others to lower their voices in order to avoid bothering the people in the neighbourhood.
He calmed the guys down when they were at risk of getting too nervous in the middle of local people, and he constantly kept an eye over them..
Coletta helped him very often, but with less energy than him.
The truth was that the selected marksman felt a little like a guest inside his own team.
His way of fighting was going to be very different from the one his mates were training for... And his personality was going the same way too.