Ohio National Guard News

812th Outlaw Team Building Challenge tests Sappers

Story and photos by Staff Sgt. George B. Davis, ONG Public Affairs

A team of Soldiers from the 812th Engineer Company (Sapper) pulls a Humvee during the 812th Outlaw Team Building Challenge
on July 27, 2014, at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind. The event was designed to test the physical and mental conditioning of the unit's Soldiers through tasks common to missions of Sappers, the Army's combat engineers. READ STORY

CAMP ATTERBUTY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. (07/27/14) — Members of the Ohio Army National Guard’s 812th Engineer Company (Sapper), based in Wooster, Ohio, conducted a mentally and physically challenging training event on July 27, 2014, near the end of the unit’s two-week annual training period — The 812th Outlaw Team Building Challenge.

The event was designed to test the physical and mental conditioning of the unit’s Soldiers in tasks common to missions of the Sapper. A Sapper is the name for the Army combat engineers who conduct mobility and anti-mobility operations on the battlefield. It is an elite designation and Sappers are expected to, even in the heat of battle, quickly and efficiently remove obstacles or create obstacles through the use of engineering tools including demolitions.

The 812th Outlaw Team Building Challenge illustrated the power of teamwork. The unrelenting physical challenges took Soldiers to their limits and then, at the demand of their teammates, beyond what they originally might have believed they could do physically. Soldiers with limited swimming abilities were assisted through the many required laps by their teammates. And teams kneeling under the weight of boats filled with sand bags were motivated into more repetitions by the fellow Soldiers of their company encouraging them to continue.