Annually, 2^nd Brigade hosts a competition at Fort Dix, NJ to bring teams together from all over the Northeast to compete for the opportunity to go to the Sandhurst competition.

Background

Every year the Ranger Challenge team holds tryouts to take nine Cadets to this competition. These nine Cadets must be mentally and physically strong, and adaptive leaders. The members of the team will go through weeks of physical and technical training in preparation for this event which includes: a physical training event, orienteering, an obstacle course, tactical combat casualty care (TC3), a hand grenade lane, weapons assembly complete with functions checks, and a rope bridge, all of which culminated in a six mile ruck march.

Execution

At 1200 Friday afternoon, the Ranger Challenge team consisting of team captain Cadet Barnes, his team leaders Cadets Ravenberg and Finnigan, and Cadets Adler, Appell, Caldwell, Campos, Cassidy, Heske, Lopez, Palmer, and Squier left for Fort Dix. Upon arrival, the team went and signed in before moving to the first event of the weekend; the physical training event. This grueling task involved running while carrying a litter with two full water jugs inside for more than three miles. Every so often there was a station that involved one of the following: 300 burpees, 500 kettle bell swings, 400 hand release pushups, and a skedco pull. Following a strong showing, the team got some sleep before the early morning wake up. At 0500 it was a gear layout until orienteering started at 0600. This involved going out and finding as many points as possible while completing a written test. After this event was a rapid succession of lanes for which the team rucked from station to station. The obstacle course was the first which involved navigating a challenging course as safely and as quickly as possible. The TC3 lane was next which involved the care of a casualty and sending up a 9-line MEDEVAC report so the team could move the casualty to a safe casualty collection point (CCP). The grenade lane consisted of events from the new physical fitness test at first, secondly the team traversed walls and barbed wire to throw grenades into bunkers and trenches all while keeping the enemy suppressed. The weapons assembly portion saw the team with five boxes filled with a random number of weapon systems (there were two M9s, two M240Bs, and four M4s) which they had to put together and check to ensure they functioned as fast as possible. The rope bridge was a unique challenge that gives the team a 150m rope, several carabiners, and several pieces of rope used for climbers to secure themselves to the rope. They had one Cadet crawl across a 30m gap with one end of the rope so that the team could construct a bridge for every member of the team to slide across.

Conclusion

Thanks to the efforts of the Ranger Challenge team, the Nathan Hale Battalion team score two places higher than last year and is already ready to crush next year’s competition headed by a new Ranger Challenge captain.

The Nathan Hale Battalion moved to Stones Ranch Military Reservation (SRMR) to train in their biannual field training exercise (FTX) to prepare MS3s for Advanced Camp and follow on training.

Background

In the middle of the Fall semester, the Nathan Hale Battalion goes into the field to have the MS3 Cadets take what they have learned throughout the year and apply it in a practical exercise that takes place over the course of several days. MS4s and Cadre work with the MS3s to best prepare them for similar situations at Advanced Camp over the summer.

Execution

Friday Afternoon, Cadets from each school representing the Nathan Hale Battalion departed to the SRMR to begin training in a field environment. Upon arrival, Cadets were issued weapon systems (either an M4 or M249) and began moving into their new squads. This was done so that each Cadet would start a little out of their comfort zone being surrounded by new people. The first event taking place at FTX was land navigation. The MS3s executed lanes by themselves, the MS2s were in pairs, and the MS1s were in groups led by MS4s. This exercise in day land navigation was followed by night land navigation following completion of the first lanes. Everyone stayed in the same groups. The next morning, the lanes for the day started. These lanes covered a wide variety of important Army knowledge consisting of: four squad attack lanes, a communications and marksmanship lane, and an individual movement technique (IMT) and patrolling lane. Each squad had a different itinerary on which order to attend the lanes. Each squad attack lane focused on a different objective (OBJ) type. Two lanes had a bunker as an OBJ while another had a temporary fighting position, and the last just personnel. This lane was used to test the Cadets on how well they had retained knowledge obtained earlier in the year on how to properly attack an OBJ. The communications section taught Cadets radio etiquette and proper usage of ASIP and SINGCAR radios. The other portion of this lane taught Cadets proper shooting technique and how to properly maintain their respective weapons. The IMT and patrolling lane was used to explain to Cadets how they should be moving in a tactical environment. It taught them what crawls worked best under fire, how far apart Cadets should be while on patrols, and other basics that are very important for Cadets to understand to achieve maximum training value at FTX and follow on training.

Conclusion

The efforts put into this training event made this an excellent exercise for all Cadets involved. Following FTX, all Cadets feel more comfortable in tactical scenarios and will perform better at their summer training because of it.