Photo By 1st Sgt. John Etheridge | Sgt. Jeremy Smith, a combat engineer from the 118th Sapper Company, 1457 Engineer...... read more read more
FORT DRUM, N.Y. – The first night they only slept for about four hours. The next night they slept for two. Over a three-day period these combat engineers called “Sappers” carried their heavy rucksacks through the heat of the day and near freezing temperatures at night. They endured the rain, sleep deprivation, and traveled nearly twenty-five miles by foot. Never once did their pace slow or their positive attitudes falter.
Eight Combat Engineers from the 118th Sapper Company, 1457th Engineer Battalion, representing the Utah National Guard, placed fifth overall at the 412th/416th Theater Engineer Command Combined 2016 Sapper Stakes Competition held at Fort Drum, New York, 11 - 14 May, 2016.
The eight Soldiers competed against 23 other Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and active Army teams from around the country. The three-day competition was designed to test the teams on their basic soldier skills, combat engineering skills, and physical and mental toughness.
“It’s a competition that tests all the Sapper and combat engineer tasks; day and night land navigation; demolitions; emplacing and breaching obstacles; and a total gut check on our physical ability, ”said Staff Sgt. Kurt Meryhew, the Utah team leader, before the competition. He also added that the team had been training since February and he thought they would do very well.
After being kept up very late with registration and briefs, the first day of competition began before dawn with a non-standard Army Physical Fitness Test. The test consisted of a push-up and sit-up event followed by a one-mile team run while wearing their combat uniform, combat boots, and carrying a rifle.
Following the physical training test the soldiers marched over to be tested on their land navigation skills. Each team was given five points to find within four hours in the thickly wooded, hilly, and marshy, land navigation course. The Utah team easily found all their points and finished the event with much time to spare.
Next the team was tested on their knowledge of small weapons and small weapons tactics. Their first task was to draw a range card, identifying the terrain around a weapons position. Their second task was a weapons jumble where the team had six minutes to put together five firearms whose pieces were mixed together in a bin. To close out the weapons testing the team participated in a reflexive fire range where they engaged pop-up targets with the M-4 carbine rifle.
“We did very well on the weapons jumble. We put all the weapons together in about four minutes,” said Sgt. Walter Patterson, a Blanding native, from the Utah team. “The team is working very well together so far and morale is very high,” he said after the weapons events.
The first day of competition ended with nighttime land navigation. The team had to navigate the same course that they competed in earlier in the day but this time in the dark without the aid of any kind of light. The Utah team found two of four points in this event.
Due to a different team getting lost in the nighttime land navigation event, the Soldiers were only able to sleep a couple hours before the second day events started.
For the second day events, the soldiers navigated through an urban improvised explosive device lane and had to identify the various IEDs they found; perform a call for artillery fire; conduct a bridge recon, where they had to measure and assess a bridge for demolition; traverse through a combat lane where they had to give first aid to casualties and carry them to a medevac point while under fire from assailants and simulation explosives.
During all of the events so far in the competition the soldiers had to carry a combat load complete with rucksack and weapon. The heavy load, warm daytime temperatures, and lack of sleep were starting to have an effect on the soldiers.
“The first day we only had about 3 and a half hours of sleep before we started the land navigation. It was very taxing going through the forest and marsh,” said Private 1st Class Richard Kunsman, also with the Utah team. “Last night we only had a little more than an hour of sleep before we started again. The exhaustion is definitely a mental and physical challenge.”
The events for the third day of competition were mostly combat engineer related tasks. The Utah team embarked on another bridge recon, participated in a mine identification and knot-tying event, and set up a triple standard wire obstacle. Also, they had two demolition events where they breached the triple wire obstacle with explosives and had to wire and place explosives for a cratering charge.
The team did well during all the events and was even complimented by the event controller on their speedy work building the triple wire obstacle.
To finish the third day of competition the combat engineers had to complete a seven-mile tactical road march as a team. There was a slight concern that they would not be able to finish the event as a team because one of the soldiers twisted his ankle earlier in the day while their group was running to one of the events.
“When I twisted my ankle I was very upset. I thought that I was going to drag my team down and not be able to finish the road march,” said Sgt. Jeremy Smith, with the 118th, and native of Monument Valley, Utah. But after a quick visit to the medics, he was cleared and able to compete.
During the road march Smith said that he and his team leader stopped and stretched out his injured ankle for about ten minutes, which separated them from the main group of the Utah team. When he was finished stretching he said they started running as fast as they could to catch back up with their team.
“We ran so hard, we were flying past the other teams,” said Smith. “When we caught back up with our team, we were all pumped!”
Despite their separation, the Utah team finished the road march together and was the second team to cross the finish line.
“I’m a little tired but it feels good to finish that as a team,” said Patterson afterwards.
Although the Sapper Stakes was designed to be a competition, the real importance of the event was the valuable training the Soldiers received.
“It’s huge to have a team be able to compete at a national competition,” said 1st Sgt. Garrett Whatcott, the 118th Sapper Company first sergeant. “Some of the tasks that they have taught here we have never done at our home station. Bringing all of the knowledge of the active and reserve components together into this has definitely helped us expand our own training ability.”
He also added that he was very proud of his team and that they represented the state very well.
“It has been amazing to watch how these soldiers have overcome the hardest of obstacles. It really shows the quality of Soldiers we have in the Utah National Guard,” he said.
The Soldiers who competed on the 2016 Utah Sapper Stakes team were:
Staff Sgt. Kurt Meryhew of American Fork, Utah.
Sgt. Walter Patterson, Blanding, Utah.
Sgt. Jeremy Smith, Monument Valley, Utah.
Spc. Michael McGookin, Roy, Utah.
Spc. Carlos Torres, Spanish Fork, Utah.
Spc. Daniel Bradley, Orem, Utah.
Private 1st Class Richard Kunsman, Orem, Utah.
Private 1st Class Tyson Roberts, Herriman, Utah
| Date Taken: | 05.14.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 05.29.2016 12:44 |
| Story ID: | 199425 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 385 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Determination and Skill Propel Utah Sapper Team Past Peers at National Competition, by 1SG John Etheridge, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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