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Injuries mark first day of Best Ranger

FORT BENNING, Ga. — Barely four hours into opening day of the Best Ranger Competition, four teams had been eliminated for injuries, three of them on the notoriously punishing Darby Queen obstacle course.

Ninety-eight men lined up Friday in the pre-dawn dark and charged across a landing zone at Camp Darby, kicking off the 23rd annual competition with a four-mile “buddy run.”

The first casualty of the day was Capt. Eric Lo of the 101st Airborne Division who suffered a suspected heat injury halfway through the run, eliminating his two-man team for the duration of the 3-day, 60-hour event.

At the Darby Queen course, the second of 23 events that will take place through Sunday, two more teams were eliminated when Staff Sgt. Tony Eshoo, an instructor with 4th Ranger Training Battalion dislocated an elbow and Capt. Michael Hamilton of 1st Armored Division dislocated his shoulder, said Maj. Dustin Martin, the physician’s assistant for the Ranger Training Brigade, which has been staging the competition since 1982.

Capt. Daniel Stevens, a competitor from the 101st Airborne Division also was injured on the course, suffering an ankle injury that eliminated his team.

The early, multiple injuries caught the RTB’s medical staff by surprise.

“It was freaky this morning, we had no expectation of that many injuries,” Martin said.

Only the strongest competitors will be left standing Saturday morning after the Friday night road march, a 20-plus mile foot race with rucksacks weighing more than 50 pounds. Martin said he and his medics are prepared to work through the early morning hours with the soldiers who drop out with injuries ranging from blisters and sprains to broken bones.

This year’s competition had the highest number of competitors in recent years, when participation has been about half that number. In the competition’s 25-year history, it has been cancelled only twice — once in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm and again in March 2003 at the start of operations in Iraq.

For the first time since combat operations began overseas, a group of four soldiers traveled from Iraq on their mid-tour leave for this year’s contest, with the support of their unit, the 25th Infantry Division.

Other firsts were the participation of three teams from the 4th Infantry Division, two teams from the 3rd Infantry Regiment Old Guard and two teams from the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade.

Saturday’s events include the Ranger Day Stakes at Todd Field, a series of stations with tests meant to test a soldier’s technical competence at warrior skills.

Sunday is expected to draw the biggest crowd with the helocast event and swim at Hurley Hill and the canoe test on the Chattahoochee River, the competition’s newest event.

READ MORE:

• Best Ranger kicks off at Benning