Cav Troopers compete in 10-mile challenge

By Staff Sgt. Keith AndersonJanuary 27, 2015

Pre-challenge cardio
1 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – FORT HOOD, Texas -- Pfc. Carla Santiago and other Signal Soldiers from Company C, 91st Engineer Battalion "Sabers," 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, complete a cardio drill using their assigned weapons before beginning a mental ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Perfect ruck weather
2 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – FORT HOOD, Texas -- Pvt. Neil Smith and Spc. Cameron Gary, Company C, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, road march through the rain, mud and low temperatures to the obstacle course - the final challenge -... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Bucket Challenge
3 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – FORT HOOD, Texas -- Signal Soldiers from Company C, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, fill buckets from a stream and run up a small hill to a water collection point during "Saber Challenge" Jan. 22. The S... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Humvee challenge
4 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – FORT HOOD, Texas -- Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division push a Humvee to the finish line Jan. 22 in the first of six challenges during "Saber Challenge." ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Winning team
5 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – FORT HOOD, Texas -- A 12-man team of Engineers from Company B, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division won the first "Saber Challenge Jan. 22. The Saber Challenge consisted of a 10-mile road march with six chall... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT HOOD, Texas -- During six hours of grueling physical and mental challenges, engineers and other Soldiers pushed themselves to overcome the rain, mud, low temperatures and fatigue to see which team came out on top Jan. 22.

Company teams from the 91st Engineer Battalion "Sabers," 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, competed in the "Saber Challenge," a timed road march of 10 miles with six challenge stations along the route.

"We purposefully kept the events a secret, so the teams when they showed up -- they knew they were going from point A to point B and through the six different stations, but they didn't know till they got there what it was," said Lt. Col. Andrew Short, commander, 91st Eng. Bn.

"We've been in Europe, so the battalion was split over the fall at about 400 Soldiers in Europe and 400 here in Fort Hood, so as we came back together here this spring we wanted to get back to some basic Soldier skills," said Short. "We have a thing that we do called the Saber Excellence Program, and the 'Saber Challenge' is an opportunity to test some of our companies on these skill sets."

The Saber Excellence Program focuses on six components leader development, performance

enhancement, physical readiness, weapons proficiency, warrior skills, and ready and resilient. The goal is develop the Soldiers to be mentally tough, physically strong, and technically sound.

After a 7 a.m. safety briefing, the teams began road marching out in 15-min intervals toward the first challenge, where the 12-man company teams pulled and then pushed a Humvee across the motorpool and then moved a large tire across a distance as a team by flipping it over repeatedly.

"The whole event tested how adaptive we are and what kind of physical shape we are in," said 1st Lt. Joseph Wilhelm, platoon leader, Company D. The "Daggers" of Co. D, a military intelligence company, earned second place in the challenge. "It was a great way to get back to the basics. A lot of the events tested some of our basic Soldier skills that we might not be able to train on as often, having gone to Germany twice and to the National Training Center in California in the last year."

After the Humvee challenge, Soldiers road marched to a small stream in the woods where they raced to fill buckets of water and run up a hill to a water collection point.

"When we showed up, we were the fifth of six teams to do it (the bucket challenge)," said Capt. Nathan Collins, commander, Forward Support Company E."It was already cold, already wet, already muddy, and we were able still to do the fastest time, because sometimes as mechanics you're used to just making stuff happen and making it work."

After the bucket challenge, Soldiers marched to the next point, a pop-up target small arms range, where they competed for points based on distance and accuracy.

At station four, Soldiers were given three numbers and three combination locks and had to work together to try different permutations to get the locks unlocked in a timed event.

At station five, Soldiers donned protective masks and disassembled and reassembled weapons and performed radio checks.

"That was probably my favorite one," said Spc. Kyle Nicholson, Headquarters and Headquarters Company. "You got to see who didn't really know how to put the weapons together, who knew the radios -- we all have our own different skills."

Nicholson said that events like Saber Challenge motivate Soldiers to perform better.

"Getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning for PT (physical training), not everyone wants to do it," said Nicholson. "But if we know we are training up for a 10-mile road march, it gives us something to train for, something to look forward to, and to be more proud of where we are and what we uphold."

The last event was an obstacle course where Soldiers litter-carried a "casualty" over obstacles and around a track to finish the Saber Challenge.

"I think the hardest challenge was the road march, just because the weather was so miserable, so cold, so wet. I know my ruck gained about 10 pounds just from water weight from it just soaking up. By the time we got out to the range, just trying to shoot, you couldn't see anything. Everyone was shaking and shivering from the cold, because you're cooling off. Then just rucking back, a lot of people were just getting zonked. They were zombie walking, because they just ran out of energy."

The engineers of Company B took home the prize for the Saber Challenge.

"It was very balanced. They won by one point based on the scale system that we used of the six stations followed by the overall movement time," said Short. "My signal company Soldiers were the best marksmen; the support company -- my mechanics and logisticians - won two events; and some of the sappers won the other events. Everybody completed the challenge. Everybody had a rucksack on their back, and everybody shot their weapon."

Events like Saber Challenge are fun and build unit cohesion, but more importantly they reinforce training and build adaptive leaders, said Short.

"One of the sayings we have in the battalion is to 'be mentally tough, technically sound and physically strong,' and that's what we're getting after," he said.