Photo By Sgt. 1st Class William Tanner | A six-man team representing 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, bested eighteen other...... read more read more
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ROSE BARRACKS, Germany – The 2nd Cavalry Regiment has the Best Scout Squad in the Army and they have the trophy to prove it.
A six-man team representing 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment bested eighteen other teams from across the United States Army to take home the coveted William J. Gainey Cup at Fort Benning, Georgia, May 8, 2015. The winners were selected by rigorously testing the Trooper’s knowledge, tactical competence, and fortitude in the fundamentals of reconnaissance and security operations according to the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence's website.
The competition was named for Command Sergeant Major William “Joe” Gainey, the first senior enlisted adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The 2CR was allowed to send one scout squad from their Reconnaissance Squadron consisting of Infantry and Armor Soldiers.
“This team was selected based on their chain of command’s observations of their performance,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Due, squadron commander “Staff Sgt. Cooper and his crew started to set themselves apart based on their technical knowledge, tactical knowledge and their performance that began with their crew level gunner and expanded out.”
The 4th Squadron team was coached by Sgt. First 1st Class Jimmy Wiesner and lead by Staff Sgt. Kyle Cooper. The squad was made up of Sgt. Cesar Cavazos, Spc. Glen Gianello, Spc. Joshua Castro, Pfc Daniel Casillas and Pfc. Justin Cope.
“We learned doctrine by the book and we rehearsed everything. Every task we’d come up to, every worst case scenario,” said Wiesner “we rehearsed we’d lose a guy.”
The hours of training and rehearsals seemingly made all the difference as Pfc. Cope came down with a back injury early on the first day. Due to painful back spasms, he was unable to carry his full load. With the squad unwilling to carry on without the full team, they redistributed his weight and carried on while he healed.
“These guys helped me recover; they carried most of my weight until I could heal,” said Cope “we overcame.”
Without having won a single event outright, the 4th Squadron Team won the competition. In the end consistency won the day by leaving the team with the highest average score.
“It means they were good across a broad scope of what we ask our Scouts to do,” said Due “it means they were consistently good.”
In the end, the team contributed their success to going back to basics, hard work and above all else, teamwork.
“We did everything together as a team” said Gianello “We came from different places, most of us, we got really close together, we really wanted to win.”
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2015 11:56 |
| Story ID: | 162880 |
| Location: | ROSE BARRACKS, DE |
| Web Views: | 1,539 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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