Photo By Sgt. Griffin Payne | U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 7th Engineer Brigade pose with their trophies after...... read more read more
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Built Through Competition: 7th Engineer Brigade Takes Best Squad Success to Army Level By Sgt. Griffin Payne KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — By the time four Soldiers from the 7th Engineer Brigade stood on stage at Tower Barracks Aug. 6, 2026, they endured through days of weapons ranges, physical events, tactical lanes.
After losing one teammate to injury during the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Squad Competition, squad leader Staff Sgt. Jonah Mang, Sgt. Pedro Cardona, Spc. Thang Mang and Pfc. Cleopheous Lane continued competing short-handed. At the end of the competition, they earned the title of the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Squad, earning the 7th Engineer Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, the opportunity to represent the theater at the U.S. Army Best Squad Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, Sept. 11-19.
Their road to the Army level, however, was building for months. The process started at the brigade level in February when Soldiers from across the 7th Engineer Brigade competed at Grafenwoehr Training Area. The events focused on basic Soldier skills, including weapons, land navigation, patrol lanes, casualty care and tactical tasks. For Soldiers from different engineering backgrounds, the competition gave them an opportunity to focus on the skills every Soldier is expected to know while also identifying areas that needed improvement.
By April, the level of competition had increased. The 7th Engineer Brigade returned to Grafenwoehr to face squads from across the 21st Theater Sustainment Command during its Best Squad Competition, April 19-24. Over six days, competitors completed the Army Fitness Test, land navigation, weapons qualification, obstacle, confidence courses and a 12-mile ruck march while working through long days and limited rest. The engineers finished first.
Staff Sgt. Jonah Mang said after the competition that their preparation came back to the basics. “We focused on the fundamentals and building mental toughness. We did a lot of conditioning and running, and it paid off.”
The competition also gave the squad experience working through problems when things did not go as planned. Equipment issues, difficult terrain and fatigue forced them to adjust while still meeting the standard. Those lessons followed the engineers into the next level of competition three months later.
From July 30 to Aug. 6, 12 squads from across the theater gathered at Grafenwoehr for the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Squad Competition. Competitors faced physical fitness events, weapons qualification, day and night land navigation, a stress shoot, an obstacle course, water crossing, the Leader Reaction Course and other physically demanding events before moving into more tactical scenarios. Squads established defensive positions, conducted patrols, reacted to battlefield problems and worked through casualty situations while already dealing with days of fatigue. The final portion of the competition included a written examination and formal board.
For the engineers, many of those challenges came back to the same things they had already been working on for months: communication, teamwork and being able to adjust when something went wrong. That became even more important after the squad lost one of its five members to injury. The remaining four Soldiers continued competing against full squads and still had to meet the same standards through the remaining events.
On Aug. 6, the 7th Engineer Brigade earned first place, ending the 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s run as U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s Best Squad. Mang said the way the Soldiers treated each other helped carry the team through the competition.
“Everything my squad and I do we put in 100 percent effort,” Mang said. “We never look down on each other, and we are always there to pick each other up.” The earlier competitions gave the engineers more than experience completing individual tasks. They gave the Soldiers repeated opportunities to work together under pressure, learn how their teammates responded when tired and how to recover quickly when something did not go as planned.
That experience also gave the squad a better understanding of what each Soldier brings to the team. As the competitions became harder, relying on those individual strengths became more important. The result was a squad that had already been tested several times before reaching the Army level. Each level also raised the standard. The brigade competition focused on the fundamentals. The 21st TSC competition increased the difficulty and length of the events. At the U.S. Army Europe and Africa level, the engineers faced some of the best squads in the theater while adjusting to a major change within their own team. Now the standard increases again.
At Fort Benning, the 7th Engineer Brigade will face winning squads from across the Army in events designed to test technical and tactical proficiency, physical fitness, Soldier skills and the squad’s ability to continue working together under pressure. The engineers will arrive with months of competition behind them and lessons learned from each level along the way. Their victory in August proved they could compete with the best squads in Europe and Africa. The U.S. Army Best Squad Competition will give them the opportunity to see how far that preparation can take them.
| Date Taken: | 09.10.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 09.11.2026 10:58 |
| Story ID: | 574401 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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