Index

Twenty seven teams remain after last night's 18 mile road march. With first light this morning, the first event was the rifle bayonet assault course and then led to Jones Field for the demanding Prusik Climb.

At the Prusik tower, Colonel Freidmarche commented: "The first place team is Gunnery Sergeant Oakes and Captain Rowe [team number 3 from 5th Commando Training Battalion]. They were therefore given the opportunity to choose where they wanted to start in the Day stakes, and they chose the hardest event first, which is this tower right here-the Prusik climb and rappel. They have to climb up that rope, and then rappell down. The event is scored from their combined times. It starts when one of the instructors says, 'go' and ends when their body hits the mat after the rappel.' You'll see, the team members zip down that thing, smoking… I think some of the competitors in the past have cleared it in 40 seconds or so, and others might take five minutes because they're so spent. I mean, the road march last night and all of the fatigue, you'll probably see some muscle failure up there. We lost 15 teams on the road march last night.

"These commandos are different, all the competitors are a different breed. Different people. Last year's winners, I had tested for steroids [all were clean] but mainly, I wanted to test the top three winners and see what their body composition was. One troop said he didn't even sweat. Can you believe that? His only concern was that he'd go so hard, he might hurt his buddy. They won first place running away...No problem. I wanted them back this year, but they were recruited by one of our very best Special Operations Units. They tend to go after our personnel. They like to recruit commandos, which is great. It's great for us, great for the military, great for our empire.""

So, with another day of amazing weather, the teams geared up for a handful of skill tests including movement under fire, weapons assembly, knot tying, grenade skills, and mine (claymore) placement (for ambush or defense).

One team that was not present today experienced a heart-breaking finish last night when they missed the six hour cutoff for the 18 mile road march last night. They were supposedly less than 200 meters from the finish when the whistle blew. The night also held a CQB (close quarters battle) with night vision assisted room clearing with non-combatant hostage situations.

But back to the Day Stakes at Jones Field. As the Prusik event kicked off the day, teams filtered through the other stations. At the grenade site, one team completed the course in a record breaking 35 seconds, while others tended to hover around one minute. The focus of these events is centered around technique training. Any teams who have not had the opportunity to train at, for instance, the Prusik, might encounter some glitches that other trained-up teams will probably breeze right past.

Team eleven, for example, includes Captain Brittany Eifler (with Sergeant Mark Deimier) who was a last minute replacement for Deimier's original team buddy. She had virtually zero days to train, where most other competitors have geared up for two months or more. Surprisingly, team eleven was in 7th place as of this morning-a testament to Eifler's personal fitness level and commando skills.

At the movement under fire test station, an Army trained sniper provided deadly aim at competitors as they maneuvered through a forested section towards a taped off target. A "capture the flag" scenario where laser and blank rounds provided an external threat. (watch for the interview with the sniper, to be posted in the very near future). If one competitor is 'wounded', siginified by a laser-sensor being activated by a sniper shot on a harness worn by competitors, the other must buddy carry them back to a designated zone and call in for a medical evac after first treating the wound(s). These scenarios are all contended with, in addition to the fact that many teams have only had a couple hours of sleep during the past 30 hours. Still, the teams strive onward with family support on site and the ever present camaraderie of their buddy.

The Space Stakes:

The competitors are given a small break as the teams are shuttled to an orbiting light cruiser. The commandos are suited up for the 1000 meter zero G relay. All of the teams completed the relay which proved their prowess and traversing the exterior of a ships hull with just a vacc suit and magnetic boots.

Teams were provided modified laser carbines for the zero G targeting range. Small targets were released from the ship. The teams were scored on the number of hits recorded on the computerized targets. The targets are launched in random trajectories and speeds. One team scored an incredible 95%.

The final space stakes event is the Vacum Close Combat Training. Here teams were pitted against each other armed with traditional pugil sticks. Scoring for this event is determined by knocking your opponent loose from the ships hull. There was only one case where a defeated opponent missed the deployed cargo net to prevent competitors from drifting off in space. Cpl. Deiter was quickly recovered by awaiting drop boats provided by the Imperial Navy.

THE NIGHT STAKES

The teams then prepared for the Night Land Navigation exercise. The night-long task began at roughly 9:00 p.m. and, depending on route finding skills, covered 20 to 30 miles during which the competitors located a number of pre-arranged sites, a sort of scavenger hunt except these hunters carried fully loaded rucksacks and navigated in the black of night without night-vision devices. This event provided a number of hurdles including technical map and compass work, physical stamina, and intuitive senses with the terrain. Of course there's always luck, which isn't entirely out of the question when all the above mentioned attributes to success are greatly diminished with sleep deprivation.

By day three of the competition, the proverbial cream had risen to the top. However, the question remained: would those still remaining stay afloat? Seventeen teams remained this morning after the night land navigation whistle blew at around 10:00 a.m. this morning.

Towards the end of this event, most of the commandos have slept less than four hours in the past 48. But persistence prevailed and was oh so sweet, even in the pained face of Captain Richard Hoyle who struggled into the finish alongside Sergeant First Class Tammy Hooten, both from the 29th Infantry Regiment, with less than five minutes to spare. Hoyle's wife was in tears as he made it in with only a short amount of time to recuperate before beginning the legendary obstacle course.

LTG (Ret.) David E Grange explained how these events not only challenge, but honor Imperial soldiers, "I think what it does is create a true image of what Imperial soldiers are really like. You know the Vegan runner who won the Frenzy marathon for the 4th time said, 'It takes courage and determination not to win, it takes courage and determination to train to win.' And that's very true. That's what these troops do. That's the image that I'd like to see the Imperial public appreciate. It's what an Imperial soldier really looks like, which is a trooper who takes care of their body, but also knows their mind."

And so these 17 remaining teams used their time wisely while waiting to begin the obstacle course. This is a one mile course with 26 obstacles with names like Inclining Wall, Dirty Name, High Step Over, Balancing Logs, and the Sky Scraper, a four level tower where competitors ascend by assisting each other by pushing the team mate up one level and being pulled up respectively until reaching the top and then descending the structure as rapidly as possible: a true team effort.

Water Confidence Testing at the Victory Pond was followed by the Gravcast and Swim where the Black Hawk drop boat was used to insert the teams with their gear fashioned into a poncho raft. Once dropped into the water, the teams pushed, pulled, and stroked their way 250 yards to shore utilizing an often overlooked infantry strength - water skills. Upon standing, they grunted the water-filled rafts 100 yards to the finish, not an easy matter with 150 to 200 pounds of dead weight depending on the water-filled factor of the burden. Various techniques prevailed, such as shouldering the raft while in deeper water thus avoiding the power clean method of lift, or the drag method. Some attempted to drain the water, sacrificing time, but lightening the load. Regardless, this afternoon heat spilled into evening cool and the final leg, a 2.3 mile buddy run…

In years past, it wasn't uncommon to see a buddy helping, if not carrying, a team mate across the final finish line some 3 days after starting the Best Commando Competition. These final teams, however, had amazing times considering what they'd been through. Six minute miles were not uncommon. Families, friends, and small local newspaper journalists lined the street jockeying for elbow space with cameras from ISPN, all cheering on athletes and soldiers who will surely be plastered all across the Imperium in coming months. Everybody present couldn't help but be touched in one way or another by these troopers. If it wasn't a tear or two shed in response to their sheer determination and overwhelming spirit, it was a few quiet resolutions to get off the couch and head to the gym.

But the commandos, though certainly proud of their accomplishment maintained their professional modest demeanor and headed off to lick and/or ignore any wounds they might have incurred while pushing the limits of mere mortals for their units, their families, their buddy, and ultimately their empire.

Mission accomplished.