CAMP RAVENNA JOINT MILITARY TRAINING CENTER, Ohio — Every year, the Army holds a Best Sapper competition, which tests two-man Sapper teams on their physical endurance, Army and combat engineer tasks and mental toughness. During Annual Training 2011 at Camp Ravenna, Soldiers of the Ohio National Guard's 812th Engineer Company, based in Wooster, hosted their own Best Sapper competition, called the Sapper Stakes Challenge.
With several four-man fire teams participating, the competition consisted of a 10-mile, 35-pound ruck march, during which teams had to use their land navigation skills to reach various stations. At these stations, teams were timed and tested on various Army and combat engineer skills, including applying first aid to a casualty, calculating demolitions, priming military explosives and identifying improvised explosive devices. Teams also were tested on their physical endurance, with pushups and situps to begin the competition, and a grueling end to the march — the "Commander's Event" — comprised of picket pounding, log sawing and tire flipping.
The first- and second-place teams came from the 812th, with Soldiers on the first-place team receiving cherry tree logs engraved with the Army engineer castle and challenge coins from 216th Engineer Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Steven D. Shepherd. Soldiers on the second-place team earned engineer Gerber multi-tools.
A few teams from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 216th Engineer Battalion, out of Woodlawn, Ohio, and the 837th Engineer Company, out of Lorain, Ohio, also competed in the event, with one team from HHC finishing third.
This was the first year that the Sapper Stakes Challenge was hosted by the 812th and, after the success of the event and positive feedback from Soldiers involved, unit leaders said they plan to host more in the future.
U.S. Army Sappers are combat engineers who support the front-line infantry. They perform a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defenses, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield construction and repair. Soldiers who complete the Sapper Leader Course, operated by the U.S. Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., are eligible to wear the Sapper Tab on their uniforms. |
