ROTC braves ’15 hours of pain’
October 30, 2006
With almost two hours until sunrise Saturday, most college students were asleep, but for members of the ISU Army ROTC program, the day was already underway.
Two nine-person ROTC teams from Iowa State joined teams from across the region Saturday for the annual Ranger Challenge competition. The competition was held at the Iowa National Guard base Camp Dodge in Johnston and was hosted by Iowa State’s ROTC program.
“It is officially called RangerChallenge, but we call it ’15 hours of pain’,” said Maj. William Carlson, adjunct instructor of military science and tactics.
Each team trained from the beginning of the school year. At Iowa State, it’s a tryout because so many cadets want to join, Carlson said.
Army ROTC Ranger Challenge events
Army Physical Fitness Test
Each member must complete a standard Army fitness test which consists of completing as many sit ups as possible in a two-minute period, as many push-ups as possible in a two-minute period and a two-mile run.
One-Rope Bridge
Each team must construct a one-rope bridge between two telephone poles and have eight members cross the bridge by attaching themselves to the rope and pulling themselves across to the other side while hanging from the rope.
Hand Grenade Assault Course
Each cadet is given six practice grenades and must move from target to target, throwing one grenade at each. Each grenade must explode within five meters of the target. While throwing the grenade, the cadet cannot be exposed for more than five seconds at any one time.
Orienteering
Each team will divide into two- or three-person buddy teams to navigate from one place to another. Each team is given 40 places to locate within 90 minutes. Each buddy team will earn points for the team’s total score by finding designated points.
Patrolling
Each team is given a simulated combat operation during which they are required to plan and execute a reconnaissance mission. Teams are graded on their planning, organization and reaction to situations that arise during the execution of the operation.
Rifle Marksmanship
Each cadet is tested on the fundamental marksmanship abilities with an M16A1/A2 rifle. The cadets are given nine rounds of ammunition to zero in their weapon sight and 10 rounds to fire at 10 targets, each sized to simulate a different distance from 25 meters to 300 meters.
Rifle Assembly/Disassembly
Each team member must disassemble, reassemble and perform a functions check on an M16 rifle within six minutes.
10K Road March
For the final event of the day, each team must complete a 10K road march with a full rucksack – approximately 30 pounds – within 90 minutes.
Compiled from the Ranger Challenge Memorandum of Instruction
“There are 17 teams from across the Midwest from 10 schools competing,” Carlson said. “There are nine members per team, with at least one female.”
The teams competed in eight events testing Army skills ranging from physical fitness to using hand grenades and M16s.
“We started off well. We started off with PT and seven of our nine guys maxed it,” said Paul Roggenbuck, senior in construction engineering and leader of Iowa State’s team one. “Patrolling was supposed to be an hour lane; we finished in about 15 minutes.”
Each station takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour and a half, Carlson said.
At each event, only the top eight scores counted, allowing one member to not compete. Many of the teams dropped their slowest member for the final event, which in many cases was the team’s female member. This prompted Iowa State’s teams to take on the motto of “nine out, nine in,” and lived up to it having all its members cross the finish line at the same time.
Iowa State’s team two took third place overall and first place out of all of the second teams. Iowa State’s team one would have won overall but was disqualified because of an equipment technicality. Originally there was going to be a three-minute penalty added to the team’s time on the 10K road march, but later it was decided the team would be disqualified.
“Even with the penalty, team one would have won,” said Talon Deemer, senior in health and human performance and member of team two.
This would have been the fourth straight year Iowa State won the overall competition.
“We [team two] ran the ruck run in one hour and 10 minutes,” Deemer said. “If we would have run it three minutes faster, we would have won overall.”
Mark Sudweeks, junior in earth science and leader of team two, was pleased with the outcome of the day’s events.
“I had no idea it was gonna go this well,” Sudweeks said. “I am really proud of the team. We kicked butt, we came in and dominated.”
Competition is all about heart. This was about who had more heart, Sudweeks said.
“This is the most competitive thing I’ve done in my life,” Sudweeks said.
