Photo By Sgt. Amber Bohlman | Pfc. Filiberto Valerio, 819th Engineer Company, 253rd Engineer Battalion looks through...... read more read more
BELLEMONT, Ariz. – Dark rain-filled clouds littered the morning sky as 10 six-person squads prepared to have their ruck sacks weighed at the 819th “SAPPER” Engineer Company’s armory at Camp Navajo, June 13.
Final preparations for the 253rd Engineer Battalion Engineer Competency Challenge began after breakfast. Graders made their way to their stations ready for the first group to step off on the six and a half mile ruck march around the base. As the first timer began, signaling the beginning of the fight for the Commander’s Cup, the weather started clearing up.
“All of the tasks in the challenge were collectively based off the wide diversity of jobs that a Soldier could have in this battalion,” said Capt. Jess Maney, battle captain, 253rd Eng. Bn.
The battalion has roughly 470 Soldiers with 44 varying MOS’s ranging from combat engineers to human resource specialists.
“The intent of the challenge was to test Soldier’s proficiency of certain technical skills along with added physical stress and mental stress with each task,” Maney said.
The scoring of the competition was broken down by three main factors. The overall time it took to complete the six and a half mile 35-pound ruck march, the time it took to complete six go/no go stations staggered along the route, and the cumulative score of the non-standard PT test at the end of the ruck.
An order was put out to each unit months in advance with the field manual numbers where each task could be studied. Every squad was given a fair advantage no matter if they are a mechanic, engineer or culinary specialist competing for the Commander’s Cup.
“They had a few combat engineer tasks, a little bit of general engineering as well as a maintenance station,” said Sgt. Dale Thomas, Combat Engineer, 819th Eng. Co. “There was a good variety of tasks.”
Members of the battalion operate in separate companies and platoons, so this was an opportunity to work with individuals they would not have normally worked with.
“We don’t know each other that well,” said Spc. Joshua Hartnek, Combat Engineer, 819th Eng. Co. “We may have never even spoken to each other before but we came out here today, had our task and knew what we needed to do to get done and worked together and made it happen.”
Determination and teamwork were two factors which motivated many teams to complete the competition with scores as close as a one point difference.
The final scoring was close for many of the teams, but in the end, Team Cougar, one of three 819th Eng. Co. teams competing took home the Commander’s Cup. The winning team members include: 1st Lt. Cooper Boice, 1st Lt. Elaine Kratz, 1st Lt. Jordan Spence, 2nd Lt. David Pounders, CDT Jacob Mentzer, and CDT Martin Cornidez.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.22.2016 18:09 |
| Story ID: | 202164 |
| Location: | BELLEMONT, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 539 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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