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About this video:
THE BUDDY RUN
42 teams march into the darkness on a course of unknown length.
Fort Benning, Georgia, the 27th Best Ranger Competition. The starting point: Camp Rogers. It’s dawn and we’re ready to start the first event: the Buddy Run. Eighty-four qualified Rangers make up the 42 two-man teams, ready to tackle the opening event and their nerves.
Sergeant First Class Chad Stackpole: It’s an unknown distance Buddy Run where these guys have absolutely no idea how far they’re gonna have to run. They have to take into account the weather, how they’re currently feeling; they have to watch their bodies, and the biggest thing is they have to watch their partner’s body.
Historically, the run has been 3.5 to 5 miles but no one knows for sure.
[Count off: “Five, four, three, two, one.”]
[Horn sounding]
[Cheering and clapping]
Each competitor must wear a 22-pound Outer Tactical Vest, or OTV, a hydration unit, and perhaps the biggest challenge, the two-man teams must stay within an arm’s length of each other. Maintaining control over your nerves is critical. The instinct is to go out strong, but that’s a high risk gamble with the unknown.
Stackpole: The biggest thing is just to set a pace and run that pace for the entire competition. If those guys can maintain that competition throughout the entire weekend, they will be within the top five teams. The teams that usually come out and push real hard from the first events never make it to the road march the first night.
With the temperature soaring and the humidity hovering around 6o percent, the physical punishment has already claimed its first team.
Ranger: He may have over hydrated. His core temp is like 106 right now, probably from wearing body armor and I don’t know what else.
Exchanging their tactical vests for life preservers, the teams attack the water, combat boots and all, faced with a 200-meter swim across Victory Pond, not quite sure what awaits on the other side.
Captain Aaron Chonko: We knew it was a 200-meter swim with all our equipment on. It was a positive getting in the water, it was cooler, cools you off a little bit, but then when you got out, and you had to continue that 5 miles, we were soaking wet, we got wet boots and wet uniform.
This year the Buddy Run is a grueling 7.2 miles, longer than any Best Ranger Competition starting event in history. Exiting Victory Pond, the competitors have covered 3.3 miles and have yet to reach the halfway point. The last few miles of the Buddy Run heads off pavement and tracks through the woods. The teams are strung out over the course and finally hit the finish line after a 7.2-mile run and a 200-meter swim.
CSM Dennis Smith: Mentally, these guys are challenged right now. I think it’s a little bit harder than what they first expected. You know, they understand it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s working out real good; the guys are starting to have to use their brain and their body.
In order to finish, the teams immediately begin the Urban Obstacle Course where they must complete a 150-pound liter carry, 2 building climbs, 2 wall climbs, a jerrycan carry and transfer over a 10-foot wall and then cross the finish line.
Team 15, Santiago and Rippey, are in sixth place after the Buddy Run, and after only a few minutes rest and a chance to rehydrate, take off through the Urban Obstacle Course.
Off they go with the 150-pound liter carry.
The first building climb is with a traditional knotted rope.
Now Santiago and Rippey navigate the second building climb.
First, the 8-foot cinder block wall and then the four-footer. By the time they hit the jerrycan carry, fatigue is becoming a factor. Full jerrycans weigh roughly 42-pounds each. Sergeant First Class Rippey is feeling the effects, possibly from overhydrating. Maintaining that balance under such adverse conditions is down to a science.
Clearing the finish line, Team 15 maintains their sixth-place position.
Time to regroup quickly. Up next, a two-mile smoke fest and the aptly named Stress Shoot.
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SEE WHAT THEY'RE UP AGAINST
THE BUDDY RUN
Without knowing the course length, teams set out at dawn on this 7.2-mile trek.
THE DARBY QUEEN
26 obstacles spread over 2,000 meters make this one of the most difficult obstacle courses known to man.
MACHINE GUN RANGE
Using different weapons, teams must engage several targets while making sure they don't misfire.
STRESS SHOOT
Teams sprint to different shoot points where their firing skills are tested using different weapons.
WEAPONS ASSEMBLY
Teams will be timed as they try to assemble weapons from various mixed parts.
ADMINISTER IV
Under stressful conditions, soldiers will be required to administer emergency care.
TRI-TOWER CHALLENGE
Three massive towers that competitors will attempt to climb, then rappel down using fast-rope techniques.
HELOCAST-SWIM
Teams must jump from moving helicopters into Victory Pond, then compete in a swim event.
MEET THE COMPETITION
Team 1
SFC Mark Breyak / SFC Steven Fields
JFK Special Warfare School & Center NCOA
Team 3
MSG Joshua King / CPT Kevin Toth
5th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Team 5
SSG George Sankey / MSG Kevin Quant
US Special Operations Command
Team 6
MSG Eric Ross / MSG Eric Turk
US Special Operations Command
Team 7
SGM Evert Solderholm / SGM James Moran
US Special Operations Command
Team 8
LTC Thomas Foster, COL Argo
US Special Operations Command
Team 9
SGT Anthony Vasquez, SSG Keith Back
3rd Infantry Division
Team 10
SSG Danny Shedd, SSG Warren Cash
3rd Infantry Division
Team 11
SSG Brett Graves, SSG Joshua Sullivan
82nd Airborne Division
Team 12
SSG Jeremiah Waggoner, SSG Bernado Mota
Team 14
SGT William Cole / 1LT Lauren Gore
1st Infantry Division
Team 15
SSG Raymon Santiago / SFC Mason Riepe
4th Ranger Training Battalion
Team 16
CPT Jeremy Shute / SFC Jared Sarten
4th Ranger Training Battalion
Team 17
SFC Larry Forrest / SFC James Anderson
4th Ranger Training Battalion
Team 18
CPT Andrew Smith / CPT Aaron Chonko
5th Ranger Training Battalion
Team 19
SSG Thomas West / SFC Jose Magana
6th Ranger Training Battalion
Team 20
SSG Kyle Skaggs / SSG Michael Ayotte
6th Ranger Training Battalion
Team 21
SGT Michael Malchow / SGT Jesse Collins
75th Ranger Regiment
Team 22
SFC William Greenwood / SFC Gerald McKinney
75th Ranger Regiment
Team 23
Eugene Mirador / SGT Jeremy Billings
75th Ranger Regiment
Team 24
SFC Brett Johnson / SSG Joshua Horsager
75th Ranger Regiment
Team 25
SSG Charles Cogle / SGT Frank Horbay
Team 26
SPC Cristob Cruz / SSG Wilton Gleaton
75th Ranger Regiment
Team 27
CPT Adam Patten / CPT Darrell Fawley
Team 28
CPT Sean Justi / MAJ Robert Risdon
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 29
CPT Ashton Ballesteros / CPT Luke Bandl
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 30
SSG Rommel Hurtado / SFC Cedric King
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 31
SSG Mark Taylor / CPT John Intile
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 32
CPT James Lostroscio / CPT Eric Schmitz
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 33
CPT Joseph DeChauny / 1LT Kevin Alger
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 34
CPT Mark Breugem / CPT Owen Broom
199th Infantry Brigade
Team 36
MSG David Roels / MSG Joseph Schoch
Asymmetric Warfare Group
Team 37
CPT Derrick Anderson / SSG Christopher Malone
3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard)
Team 38
1LT Daniel Norwood / MSgt Michael Miller
USAF 820th SFG
Team 39
SFC Vernon Kenworthy / SFC Justin Brekken
3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard)
Team 40
CPT Christopher Ahlemeyer / SSG Robert Tobin
Rhode Island Army National Guard
Team 41
1SG Kevin Dylus / CPT Robert May
North Carolina Army National Guard
Team 42
SFC Robert Hoffnagle / MAJ Jamison Kirby
Army National Guard Warrior Training Center
Team 44
1LT Matthew Schachman / CPT John Campbell
25th Infantry Division
Team 45
MAJ Ryan Hanson / SFC Keith Bishop
95th Civil Affairs Brigade
