BOISE, Idaho — During a yearlong deployment, 5 soldiers from the Idaho National Guard competed in a competition to test their military skills.
“The Best squad competition of the army just started and we used to have it to test a team. Usually, we do a best warrior competition which consists of an individual. The best squad they discovered that to build team cohesion is to actually build an entire team and compete with that team," says Sergeant Douglas Woods.
The 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team consists of five soldiers including Sergeant Woods.
While on deployment in Kuwait, they were chosen at random to compete in the U.S. Army Best Squad Competition.
“They put up a request, hey our team worked really well in combat zone we'd like to go test our metal against other people. So I signed the approval and they went over and dominated the competition,” says Joshua McRoberts, company commander for C-2 116.
These competitions might be considered tough for you and me but for those taking part, the Army combat fitness test, marksmanship courses, 12-mile treks in full gear, and others, are just like any other day.
Sergeant Woods says, “They woke us up early in the morning it was like 0300 we conducted a water movement via zodiac and did a ruck march afterward into another competition which ended up being a sprint run. So we had to run in full kit under night vision under different houses looking for specific numbers.”
While in Kuwait the 116th also competed against other units, winning the Army Central Command Competition and to their surprise the Forscom Competition as well.
Sgt. Woods continues, “The crazy thing about the whole thing is we're a National Guard representing force command. So it wasn't just we're the active-duty guys nobody expected us to be there. Even the force command, while we were there competing for that competition, none of them expected us to be there. So that was honestly the craziest part was all these guys were like, ‘Wait what team are you guys? ‘Like oh, we're the Idaho National Guard team representing Arcent.”
Overall the 5 soldiers placed 4th in the U.S. Army best squad competitions making their fellow soldiers proud.
