Photo By Spc. Andrew Clark | U.S. Army Spc. Charlie Rangel, assigned to the 525th Expeditionary Military...... read more read more
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FORT EUSTIS, VA - On the morning of Feb. 3rd, the XVIII Airborne Corps Brigade Separates 2025 Best Squad Competition began at Fort Eustis, Virginia. Eight units from the XVIII Airborne Corps including the 716th Military Police Battalion, the 525th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade, the 20th Engineer Brigade, the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the 44th Medical Brigade, the 35th Corps Signal Brigade, and the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) all had Soldiers present as candidates for the competition.
"The Best Squad Competition is really giving these Soldiers a chance to showcase their skills and perform under stress and really making them work together as a team,” said Sgt. Maj. James Wagoner, the operations sergeant major for the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary). “It is so important nowadays that these squads know how to work together when they are going off with the new mission command coming up, so it is just being able to let these Soldiers work and put them in stressful situations to see how they react. That is probably one of the most important parts of this competition."
Best Squad Competitions are events that take place yearly across various echelons of military command and culminate in the Army Best Squad Competition. Best Squad Competitions are opportunities for individual units to showcase their toughest Soldiers in competition utilizing events based on physical, technical, and tactical abilities under stress and fatigue.
For the Soldiers participating, Best Squad Competitions are an opportunity to learn and reinforce skills they don’t always get to practice during their usual duties.
“I think the best way to learn is doing the Best Squad Competition,” said Sgt. Anthony Shaver, assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary). “I got a lot of good information relayed to me, and I absorbed it very well due to the stress. It is a great opportunity to learn.”
Events at these competitions can range from a variety of weapons qualifications to competing in a physical fitness test, and much more. Along the way, barring one or two helicopter lifts, the squads often ruck march between each event. During the competition at Fort Eustis, the teams are also tasked to establish a patrol base conduct a squad board in their dress uniforms. Each squad had varying times to prepare for the competition and employed a variety of strategies in their training.
“Every single day, we were going through all Expert Soldier Badge lanes, multiple weapons systems, practicing land nav and going to the range,” said Spc. Jackson Rogers, assigned to the 20th Engineer Brigade. “I have had our medics come down and do a bunch of medical lanes with us. We had some Audie Murphy members come in and quiz up to the board. We are prepared to work. We are ready.”
The Brigade Separates Best Squad Competition is designed to determine which squad from those competing brigades will go on to compete in the XVIII Airborne Corps Best Squad Competition in the coming months.
“I think that most importantly, everyone is going to learn something from this, win or lose,” Rogers continued. “Having all these new skills we learn, we should be able to go back to our units, and we should have to go raise the boats and teach all the other Soldiers and get that next generation ready.”
Though the competition promised to be challenging and intense, the Soldier’s morale was high as the event began.
“My biggest takeaway is the training outside of your typical experience,” said Cpl. Ryan Brown, assigned to the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command. “You get a chance to come out and show what you know, but you also get to talk with all these other great Soldiers and leaders and find out everything else that they know and go back a stronger Soldier.”
| Date Taken: | 02.03.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2025 11:42 |
| Story ID: | 490150 |
| Location: | FORT EUSTIS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 56 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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