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Best Ranger contest kicks off
By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 18, 2008 11:47:29 EDT
FORT BENNING, Ga. — With a blast from an air horn, nearly 50 soldiers broke from the starting gate one minute after 7 a.m. Friday, kicking off the 25th annual Best Ranger Competition.
The three-day marathon event, which schedules no rest for its participants, continues through Sunday.
Clad in combat fatigues and gear, the soldiers began the competition without the traditional push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Instead, they launched directly into a 3.8-mile run with obstacles, a portion of which featured two-man teams scaling 60-foot-high rope netting and crawling through a watery pit — in near-freezing temperatures.
Team 7 — Sgt. Andrew Fuccillo and Spc. Bennette Purdy of the 75th Ranger Regiment — were the first to exit. Steam rose from their drenched Army Combat Uniforms.
“Do you need help, do you need help?” Fuccillo called to Purdy, who was running several feet behind. He responded between breaths, “No, I’m good.”
And that was just the beginning.
The rest of the day’s schedule called for parachuting out of a Black Hawk helicopter to hit a target on the ground, various marksmanship and casualty evacuation events, and the dreaded “foot march,” a nighttime trek of unknown distance that lasts until the early morning and has been known to eliminate many from the competition.
Soldiers met for a pre-race briefing at 5:30 a.m. Afterward, they gathered to fill canteens and packs on their backs. As the sun brushed the sky from black to purple to blue, soldiers — first-timers among them — stretched and joked.
“I don’t know if I’ll be the fastest but definitely the best-looking,” said Maj. Brian Heatherman, who with his teammate, Sgt. Chris Baumgartner, were the first Marines to participate in the competition in at least a few years.
Staff Sgt. Eric Currier was competing with Staff Sgt. Gerald McKinney, both of whom were rookies to the competition representing the 75th Ranger Regiment.
“This morning you start off joking, all week joking,” Currier said. “You don’t really hear anybody joking now. You feel the gnomes doing backflips in your stomach and everything. … Once we get all the jitters out, it’s just autopilot from there on out.”
Additional coverage of Day 1, as well as standings, will be posted later today.
See who’s competing in the 25th annual Best Ranger Competition.
For directions to Fort Benning or more information about the competition.
By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 18, 2008 11:47:29 EDT
FORT BENNING, Ga. — With a blast from an air horn, nearly 50 soldiers broke from the starting gate one minute after 7 a.m. Friday, kicking off the 25th annual Best Ranger Competition.
The three-day marathon event, which schedules no rest for its participants, continues through Sunday.
Clad in combat fatigues and gear, the soldiers began the competition without the traditional push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Instead, they launched directly into a 3.8-mile run with obstacles, a portion of which featured two-man teams scaling 60-foot-high rope netting and crawling through a watery pit — in near-freezing temperatures.
Team 7 — Sgt. Andrew Fuccillo and Spc. Bennette Purdy of the 75th Ranger Regiment — were the first to exit. Steam rose from their drenched Army Combat Uniforms.
“Do you need help, do you need help?” Fuccillo called to Purdy, who was running several feet behind. He responded between breaths, “No, I’m good.”
And that was just the beginning.
The rest of the day’s schedule called for parachuting out of a Black Hawk helicopter to hit a target on the ground, various marksmanship and casualty evacuation events, and the dreaded “foot march,” a nighttime trek of unknown distance that lasts until the early morning and has been known to eliminate many from the competition.
Soldiers met for a pre-race briefing at 5:30 a.m. Afterward, they gathered to fill canteens and packs on their backs. As the sun brushed the sky from black to purple to blue, soldiers — first-timers among them — stretched and joked.
“I don’t know if I’ll be the fastest but definitely the best-looking,” said Maj. Brian Heatherman, who with his teammate, Sgt. Chris Baumgartner, were the first Marines to participate in the competition in at least a few years.
Staff Sgt. Eric Currier was competing with Staff Sgt. Gerald McKinney, both of whom were rookies to the competition representing the 75th Ranger Regiment.
“This morning you start off joking, all week joking,” Currier said. “You don’t really hear anybody joking now. You feel the gnomes doing backflips in your stomach and everything. … Once we get all the jitters out, it’s just autopilot from there on out.”
Additional coverage of Day 1, as well as standings, will be posted later today.
See who’s competing in the 25th annual Best Ranger Competition.
For directions to Fort Benning or more information about the competition.