Courtesy Photo | Poncho raft swimming was one of a myriad of skills that Majs. Matthew Snyder (right)...... read more read more
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It is a fierce, grueling competition that is not for the faint of heart who may lack the ability to overcome the physical onslaught and environmental obstacles that face each participant who aimed for the top prize of being the best Ranger in the U.S. Army.
Two members of the U.S. Military Academy faculty teamed up to form one (Team #42) of the 51 duo pairings who challenged themselves at the 38th annual Lt. Gen. David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition April 8-10 at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Majs. Matthew Snyder, Defense and Strategic Studies deputy director in the Department of Military Instruction, and John Baer, Department of Physical Education instructor, represented the academy and ended up in the Top 10 with a ninth-place finish.
Their finish received high praise from the Commandant of Cadets, Brig. Gen. Mark Quander, as he said, “This is a significant achievement and speaks to the caliber of instructors we have at the U.S. Military Academy.”
A USMA team has been represented at the Best Ranger Competition for the past five years and this was the second-best finish in that timeframe, including a sixth-place finish in 2019.
The competition is for, as Baer explained, “Anyone in the Army who graduated from Ranger School is eligible to represent their unit in this competition. This includes our sister services (we had one Airman this year) and the special operations organizations like the 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces. A unit will usually hold tryouts to choose the two-person teams that will represent them.”
As Snyder detailed the Best Ranger Competition is a arduous military skills competition where Ranger-qualified buddy teams compete in physical, marksmanship and technical events.
“Ranger teams covered 65 miles in about 60 hours on minimal sleep and food,” Snyder said. “Competitors fired a range of weapons systems to include the M4, M249, M240, M17, M110, M2, LAW and 60mm mortars.
“(The) skills (the Ranger competitors needed to perform) included building and detonating a demolitions charge, casualty care, rope climbing and rappelling, operating a radio, assembling weapon systems, grenade throwing, obstacle courses, poncho raft swimming, knot tying, helocasting, night land navigation and much more,” he added.
The USMA team of Snyder and Baer joined forces at the beginning of November and immediately began their training.
“We spent nearly six months training for this event,” Snyder said. “Our families made incredible sacrifices to allow us the opportunity to compete and represent West Point.”
As the two-plus day event arrived and even with all the training leading up to what all the participants were prepared for, both mentally and physically, many factors came to light with its share of struggles to get through the nearly 60-hour gauntlet.
“The final buddy run was the most physically excruciating event for me,” Snyder said. “John and I understood each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so I relied on John to literally keep pushing me along to the finish line. I was able to overcome this obstacle knowing that my partner was there to keep me putting one step in front of the other.”
Baer said the first six events were intensely physical with the events happening back-to-back with minimal rest in between them.
“I was challenged as the cumulative effect of the previous physical events set in,” Baer said. “Other distractors (included) the cold temperature after finishing a swim across a lake because it made it difficult to complete relatively easy tasks like traversing horizontal bars or climbing a rope.
“It’s a good reminder to create austere environments in which to train because often that’s where we fight,” Baer added.
Training for Snyder and Baer wasn’t quite the same as if they were a part of a unit that is constantly preparing for its next deployment. At West Point, they are charged with teaching and leading cadets in a more ‘garrison/university’ environment where they must find the time to train after taking care of their regular jobs first and foremost.
“Training and holding a full-time job presented scheduling challenges in finding the required time to properly prepare for the physical demands of the competition,” Snyder, who branches Special Forces, said. “At the end of the day, our families were the ones that sacrificed time with us so that we could spend extra hours on the track or in the gym.
“Balancing family, training and our jobs required intense commitment,” he added. “And we always tried to maintain our focus on the goal of becoming the next Best Ranger team.”
Baer, who is in the Engineers branch, did say there were some distinct advantages to training at West Point, which included state-of-the-art facilities, subject matter experts offering guidance, and a consistent schedule that allowed for a deliberate training progression. But, he added, the biggest factor for them was limited time to train.
“Most competitive units will isolate their competitors from all other jobs and allow them to train exclusively for Best Ranger,” Baer said. “Matt and I have an urgent mission to train cadets to be officers, which will always take precedence over preparing for a competition.
“Our greatest challenge over the last six months has been maximizing the amount of time we have to prepare without neglecting our primary mission,” Baer added.
And despite the obstacles in their path, they succeeded to a Top-10 finish and represented West Point, the academy and themselves well at the competition.
“We are extremely proud to bring home a Top-10 finish for the U.S. Military Academy,” Snyder said. “I’m happy that I could cross the finish line with John. He’s been a great training partner. I think we each brought unique skills to the competition that complemented each other well, and we remained focused and consistent throughout the competition.
“When the competition became exceptionally grueling, we relied on our grit, experience and trust in each other to accomplish whatever task was in front of us,” he added.
Baer mentioned that he was satisfied that their diligent work earned them a Top-10 spot at the competition.
“We trained together six days a week on a rigorous fitness plan since November, and there was always the worry that something unexpected would derail our work — injury, family situation or the competition wouldn’t look like what we expected it to,” Baer said. “None of that happened and it is extremely satisfying to see six months of sweat pay off over the course of 60 hours. We did not have the time available to train that most of the 16 finishing teams had, but we became obsessive about using the time that we had well.”
When it was all said and done, the duo of Snyder and Baer completed the job successfully at hand, and they both left their mark with the final messages from competing in the competition.
“The biggest reason I chose to compete this year was I wanted to work toward a lofty goal with someone as passionate as I was about reaching it,” Baer said. “It’s rare to find that and there’s a lot of self-development that can happen in a space like that. Matt is the ideal officer and partner for something like this, and I’ll cherish the experience of having strived for something with him.”
Snyder reiterated the importance of being at USMA with the faculty’s mission to help educate, train and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each of them graduate to be a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation.
“We strive to accomplish this in the classroom, in the field and during daily interactions with cadets,” Snyder said. “Competing in the Best Ranger Competition was another opportunity to inspire cadets by voluntarily putting ourselves through a crucible event that required physical fitness, mental alertness, technical expertise, grit and intestinal fortitude. Our hope is that our actions favorably represented the U.S. Military Academy and inspired future officers to strive for excellence.”
| Date Taken: | 04.26.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2022 16:34 |
| Story ID: | 419370 |
| Location: | WEST POINT, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 191 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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