Photo By Spc. Brent Newton | A group of competitors at the 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command (451 ESC) Best...... read more read more
FORT SILL, Oklahoma – The day started early for competitors and their cadre around 3:00 A.M. for the third day’s events at the 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command’s Best Warrior, Best Squad Competition on Fort Sill, March 4, 2025. Severe weather delayed the start by a couple hours, but the cadre got the Soldiers back on track.
The first event was night land navigation. Competitors were equipped with night vision goggles (NVGs) in addition to their regular gear to navigate the Oklahoma wilderness. Rain from earlier made the terrain extra slick and muddy requiring Soldiers to be more diligent as they trekked the landscape. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
After night land navigation, competitors were able to take breakfast. Afterwards they were immediately prepped for day land navigation. They were able to move more confidently with a clear sky, but the terrain still presented some difficulties.
Weapons preliminary marksmanship instruction (PMI) was the third event of the day. Competitors returned to the classroom to go over their grasp of essential knowledge for handling different weapon systems. PMI focuses on weapon familiarization, safety procedures, basic marksmanship skills, confidence building and performance preparation. They handled the SIG Sauer M17, the M4A1 Carbine, the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and the M240, 7.62 mm Medium Machine Gun. Soldiers also took a timed test at the end to test mastery of the knowledge.
The final event of the day was a mystery to the competitors. Typically, every competition has one event that the competitors have no clue about. All they knew was that it could be anything from within their military training. Today’s mystery event was a pugil stick tournament. Pugil sticks are training weapons used since World War II by military personnel in training for rifle and bayonet combat.
The wind had picked up by the afternoon with speeds topping 30 mph in some areas.
| Date Taken: | 05.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.06.2025 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 497075 |
| Location: | LAWTON, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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