Photo By Leo Jenkins | U.S. Army Central Command Sgt. Maj. Eric McCray poses with the 2025 Army Futures...... read more read more
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ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — The U.S. Army Central team won the 2025 Army Futures Command (AFC) Best Squad Competition, held here May 12–16.
Each squad consisted of five Soldiers: a squad leader, which is a sergeant first class or staff sergeant; a team leader, a sergeant or corporal; and three squad members in the ranks of specialist or below. The Winning Team are all Infantrymen assigned to 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment,10th Mountain Division
ARCENT and AFC’s Best Squad:
• Squad leader, Staff Sgt. Jemes A. Lane
• Team leader and AFC’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, Sgt. Nikolaus Jones
• AFC's Soldier of the Year, Spc. Nicholas Burner
• Spc. Javaris Dent
• Spc. Jacob Winter
Alternates Sgt. Caleb Kramer and Spc. Darian Smith also contributed to the team’s success.
The winning team will compete at the Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA)-Level Best Squad Competition later this year.
Over five days of rigorous physical, tactical, and mental challenges, the team displayed resilience, precision, and cohesion.
“You start off as strangers, but by the end, you feel like you’d go to war for these guys,” said Jones. “We all had something to prove, and we didn’t stop pushing each other to be better.”
For Lane, the competition was about mentorship and building others up.
“I didn’t want to win just to say I won I wanted my squad to win so they could carry that experience and maybe pass it on to someone else who needed it,” Lane said.
Their victory arrives during the Army’s 250th anniversary, a yearlong celebration of heritage and readiness. The team will represent AFC at the HQDA-level Best Squad Competition in the fall, with winners to be announced during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., a key event that also hosts the Army Ten-Miler and honors Soldiers across the force.
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.16.2025 11:34 |
| Story ID: | 542924 |
| Location: | ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 25 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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