Teams compete for best ranger title

Infantry Magazine,  May-June, 2004  by Douglas M. Greenway

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

The 21st annual David E. Grange, Jr. Best Ranger Competition was held April 23-26 at Fort Benning, Georgia.

This year, two teams from the 75th Ranger Regiment took the top two spots of the 60-hour nonstop competition. Staff Sergeants Colin Boley and Adam Nash edged out Sergeant First Class Matthew Wilson and Staff Sergeant John Sheaffer for first place.

In 1982, Lieutenant General David E. Grange, Jr., initiated the best ranger competition with the intent of having the finest Ranger buddy teams in the Army compete against each other in an extreme test of endurance and stamina.

I think the initial concept of this competition was to pull the best two men from an infantry squad or platoon, give them a maximum of two weeks to prepare, and then put them into the gauntlet of this nearly three-day event. The fact is that SSG Boley from the 75th Ranger Regiment did just that. Boley had only just returned from Afghanistan days before he was asked to compete and less than 10 days before the killer competition. That is true warrior and Ranger spirit.

This competition, like all other best ranger competitions, was different from previous years' events. It started like most with a PT test. Instead of one set of pushups and sit-ups and a two-mile run, these competitor's had to compete two sets of push-ups and sit-ups (two minutes each set), and an unknown distance run of 8.4 miles. The unknown distance run set the stage for a grueling first day. The days continued with these following events:

Day 1

PT tests, unknown distance run (8.4 m), moving target range, spot jump, litter carry, canoe race, and a road march. Of the first day's events the event that is, without a doubt, the defining eliminator of teams is the road march. Prior to the road march, the two events that led to the destruction and breakdown of many teams were the unknown distance run and the litter carry.

Day 2

One of the Ranger mottos is "Not for the weak or faint hearted." Right after the road march, competitors went into night stakes with no sleep. Night stakes consisted of call for fire, vehicle recognition, radio operation, call for nine-line medevac, and demolition tasks. At approximately 0700 of Day 2, the Rangers started day stakes. Day stakes consisted of the Prusik Climb, 292 antenna, weapon assembly, two mystery events (hatchet throw/bow and arrow shoot and stress fire), M18A1 claymore, and knot test. New this year in day stakes was the timed stress shoot, which involved a 1.5-mile run, sewer tunnel navigation, M4 shoot transitioning to 9mm pistol to an M203. Any competitor can tell you the hardest minute of Best Ranger is the vertical climb with the Prusik stirrups to the top of the 70-foot rappel tower.

The Rangers went straight from day stakes into the night orienteering course from Camp Rogers to Camp Darby where they attempted to find 12 points. The orienteering course, like the road march the day before, was the killer task. It is lonely out in the dark woods and easy to just quit.

The teams finished up Day 2 at about 0700 when they arrived at Camp Darby for only one reason--to go through the longest mile on Fort Benning, the Darby Queen obstacle course.

Day 3

The Darby Queen has 26 obstacles and is 1,000 meters tong, most of which seems uphill. The teams then trucked out to Victory Pond for the water confidence course consisting of the log walk, rope drop and suspension traverse. After making a poncho raft with their equipment, the teams helocasted into the water and swam half way across the pond. The final event was the three-mile buddy run to the finish line.

This year's event started with 19 teams and finished with only eight. Seven teams fell out during the road march and four others left sometime late Saturday during the orienteering course. Just to finish the best ranger competition is deemed a success, and the competition cannot be compared to any other event in the world. It tests the intestinal fortitude of the best warriors in the Army. SSG Boley's example of fitness and skill straight from the ranks is exceptional. It should not be the exception but the rule. Rangers are and must be ready every day of the year not just on April 23.

Rangers lead the way!

2004 Best Ranger Competition Results

1st place--Staff Sergeants Colin Boley and Adam Nash, 75th Ranger Regiment

2nd place--Sergeant First Class Matthew D. Wilson and Staff Sergeant John Sheaffer, 75th Ranger Regiment

3rd place--Captain Corbett F. McCallum and Staff Sergeant Jeffrey D. Lewis, 4th Ranger Training Battalion

4th place--Staff Sergeants Eric Buonopane and Robert Ossman, 5th Ranger Training Battalion

5th place--Captains John S. Serefini and Paul W. Staeheli, Joint Security Area, Korea

6th place--Captains David Bragg and Brian Hoffman, U.S. Army Maneuvers Center

7th place--Sergeants First Class Brent Myers and William Langham, 5th Ranger Training Battalion

8th place--Captain Kevin M. O'Connor and Staff Sergeant Joshua K. Carswell, 4th Ranger Training Battalion