Road march eliminates 12 teams in Best Ranger - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Road march eliminates 12 teams in Best Ranger

FORT BENNING, Ga. — The Best Ranger Competition’s road march, an 18-mile trek that lasted from Friday night into Saturday morning, lived up to its reputation for being the event’s ultimate eliminator.

Twelve teams, or 24 soldiers, either dropped out or were encouraged to do so by Ranger instructors. The rigor of the opening day’s events combined with sultry weather — temperatures soared into the upper-70s — challenged even some of the toughest soldiers and Marines.

The march is normally about 30 miles, but it was shortened this year after competitors began dropping out due to heat-related cramps, fatigue and illness.

All participants were dressed for the march in “full battle rattle,” including gear and 60-pound backpacks.

Friday’s activities included a 3.8-mile morning run with obstacle courses. Soldiers also spent the day leaping from a Black Hawk helicopter as part of a 1,500-foot static-line parachute jump, swimming across a frigid lake, navigating thick forest terrain, aiming M4 machine guns and .45-caliber pistols at both stationary and moving targets, and bandaging lifelike mannequins and dragging them to safety amid earsplitting explosions.

“Day 1 was the roughest Day 1 I have experienced,” said Sgt. Jeremy Billings, a member of Team 9 who teamed up with Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Beck to represent the 75th Ranger Regiment. “Last year, it was pretty easy. I did 24 miles, and it was easier than this year on the road march. It was hot; I know teams weren’t drinking water enough. It’s just heat cramps.”

Billings spoke during a short rest period on Saturday as he and his partner prepared for a casualty evacuation exercise.

Similarly, Team 21 — 1st Lt. Tyler Patterson and 1st Lt. Lloyd Wohlschlegel representing the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii — took advantage of the high drop-out rate on the march, vaulting in the standings.

”Slow and steady was my motto,” Wohlschlegel said as he prepared to enter a Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle to be ferried to a stress shoot. “And sure enough, three or four miles in, we were already walking past people because it was a pretty tough day yesterday for a lot of people.”

”They certainly should all be proud of themselves,” said Lt. Col. Jon Ring, deputy commander of the Ranger Training Brigade. “Nobody quit. Most of them were out of gas, or somebody made the decision for them.”

Ranger-qualified troopers often are reluctant to quit any activity due to their commitment to completing the mission, Ring said. But, he added, “you can’t play around with [heat exhaustion]. The first thing he’s going to lose is his sense of judgment, and they’ll keep going beyond their limit.”

As of 6 p.m. Saturday, standings posted on the Ranger Training Brigade’s Web site showed Team No. 5 — Staff Sgt. Shayne Cherry and Staff Sgt. Michael Broussard of the 75th Ranger Regiment — in first place.

Behind them were, in order: Team No. 9, Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Beck and Sgt. Jeremy Billings of the 75th Ranger Regiment; Team 3, featuring brothers Capt. Jeff D. Soule and Maj. Gregory S. Soule of the Reserved Officers’ Training Corps at James Madison University, Va.; Team 1, Sgt. 1st Class Chad Stackpole and Staff Sgt. Miguel Antia of the 4th Ranger Training Battalion; and, finally, Team 20, Capt. Brian Braithwaite and Staff Sgt. Mitchell Tisserand of the 5th Ranger Training Battalion.

But the standings were expected to be updated later Saturday evening. For the latest results, visit the Ranger Training Battalion’s Web site here.

Saturday’s activities were scheduled to close with another challenging overnight activity: the eight-hour nighttime land navigation course.

“The next big one is the land nav — throw those packs on again and walk for miles and miles,” Patterson said. “That’s what everybody is thinking about now. It’s going to be a big graded event, so it’s going to be the last thing that’s probably going to put the top five [competitors] pretty solid into the brackets.”

See the original roster of teams competing in Best Ranger:

http://www.armytimes.com/projects/army/bestranger/08/teams/.

Check out reporter Brendan McGarry’s blog from Benning:

http://www.militarytimes.com/blogs/notebook/.