Ranger Challenge Photos

TEAM MEMBERS

Captain: Matt Jones

Members:
Barron
Seth Brown
Sara Brubaker
Phil Cotter
Brian Heath
Chris Fletcher
Jon Harless
Michael Jeng
Nick Lowman
Alex Salloum
Louis Ortiz
Alexandra Shams

 

A message from the Team Captatin:

We had a 10 cadet team go to Fort Pickett, VA for the

annual Ranger Challenge Competition. The team consisted of 4 seniors, Nick

Lowman, Jon Harless, Seth Brown and myself, 3 juniors, Phil Cotter, Mike

Jeng, Alex Salloum, and 3 freshmen, Sarah Brubaker, Louis Ortiz, and Dan

Barron and 2 freshmen alternates, Alexandra Shams and Brian Heath.

The competition tests cadets on basic Soldier skills and consists of 9

events. The events are the Army Physical Fitness Test, a written land

navigation test, night land navigation, day land navigation, constructing a

one rope bridge, basic rifle marksmanship, hand grenade assault course, a

warrior task lane, which tested evaluating a casualty, calling in a medical

evacuation, setting up a claymore mine, and calling for indirect fire, and

the final event is a 10kilometer ruck march. It is a round robin competition

where each team walks from event to event throughout the day in full gear.

On Friday, we arrived mid afternoon at Fort Pickett and took the Army

Physical Fitness Test and than moved on to take the written land navigation

test. Next, we waited until dark for night land navigation, where each team

member was given 3 points that they had to locate in 75minutes using a map,

protractor, and compass in the dark without a flashlight.

On Saturday morning we woke up at 0530 and moved to our first event at

0700, which was day land navigation, where each team member had 5 points to

locate in 75 minute during the day light, using the same map, compass, and

protractor. After that we rotated through the next 4 events. The second

event of the day was constructing a one rope bridge. For this event, the

team had to tie swiss sweats, a rappelling seat, and using a 150' rope,

construct a bridge that went from 1 tree to another tree that was 10 meters

apart and get the entire team across and break down the bridge. Our team

completed this event in 4min 33 seconds. Unfortunately, this was our worst

event. At basic rifle marksmanship, each team member is given 10 rounds of

ammunition and an M16 and the goal is to put all 10 rounds into a 4cm

circle. Of the ten cadets on the team, 6 shot a 10/10 and the other 4 shot a

9/10. The next event was the hand grenade assault course, where the team was

divided into 5 buddy teams that negotiated a 5 target course with each

member getting 3 hand grenades. The targets included a simulated mortar

position, 2 sets of enemy troops in open terrain, enemy troops in a trench

line, and an enemy bunker position. Each team had to move through the

woods as if they were under enemy fire and engage each target till the buddy

team ran out of grenades. On our team, we had 2 buddy teams knock out 5

targets, 2 knock out 4 targets, 1 knock out 3 and 1 knock out 2. The next

event was the warrior task lane, where we reported to the station and were

briefed on a tactical situation where 2 of our team members sustained

injuries, one a bleeding extremity and another a head wound. The other 8

members had to secure a perimeter around the 2 injured members, render aid

and call in a medical evacuation. While all the casualties were being

treated, we had to emplace a claymore mine to secure our perimeter and call

in indirect fire, which is artillery. After this event we had to move back

to the start point, the day land navigation site, and than move to the start

of the 10k ruck march.

For the 10k ruck march, each team member had to have a 35lbs ruck with a

dummy M16 rifle, and Kevlar helmet. Then staying together as a team, we had

to negotiate the 10k march in the fastest time possible. This event is

particularly tough, as it is the last event and tests the overall mental and

physical toughness of a team. We started the 10k ruck march at around 5pm. I

believe that this is the most important event, as it shows how much a team

has trained and how much they are willing to sacrifice for each other so we

put alot of emphasis on this event.We finished the 10k ruck march in

1hour 25minutes, 9 minutes faster than any other school in the brigade.

The brigade, every school that has an ROTC program in North Carolina and

Virginia, is divided up into 2 different divisions, Black and Gold based

upon size of the program. There were 21 teams there this weekend, with 10 in

the Gold Division and 11 in the Black. Duke is in the Gold

division, including UNC and WF.

Duke won the Gold Division and we dominated the competition. Placing first

in 4 events; Basic Rifle Marksmanship, Day Land Navigation, Hand Grenade

Assault Course, and the 10k Foot March. Placing second in 3

events; team average of Army Physical Fitness Test, written land navigation,

night land navigation. Placing third in the warrior task lane and placing

fifth in the One Rope Bridge.

 

 

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