European Best Squad Competition kicks off

By 1LT Megan Burmeister, 110th Public Affairs Detachment, Rhode Island Army National GuardOctober 19, 2015

Picking the order
1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (18 OCT 2015) -- U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Tony Tuck, Joint Multinational Training Command G3, speaks to U.S. and multinational soldiers during the European Best Squad Competition at the 7th Army's Joint Multinational Training Command'... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Cadre instructions
2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (18 OCT 2015) -- U.S. Army and multinational soldiers receive instructions by an European Best Squad Competition cadre during the European Best Squad Competition at the 7th Army's Joint Multinational Training Command's Grafenwoeh... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Best Squad Welcome Ceremony
3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (18 OCT 2015) -- A projection screen displays the welcoming ceremony slides for the European Best Squad Competition held at the 7th Army's Joint Multinational Training Command's Grafenwoehr Training Area. The competition is multi... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
European Best Squad Competiton 2015
4 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (18 OCT 2015) -- Soldiers from around Europe arrived, here, today, to compete in the European Best Squad Competition, a multinational event hosted by the U.S. Army intended to test 17 squads on fitness, mental, and tactical challenges.

The squads competing in this traditional manner provide U.S. allies and partners throughout NATO an opportunity to promote strong teamwork through competition and strengthen relationships throughout the Alliance.

While the teams waited to finish the in-processing, they shared their concerns and hopes for the competition.

"The most challenging part of the competition is not knowing anything about the competition," said Staff Sgt. Barach Rouleau, squad leader for B Company, 1st Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment. "We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what we need to do."

Throughout the teams, the confidence level is high, despite the intentional secrecy of the competition's composition. Sgt. Maj. Tony Tuck, G3, for the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command, here, said the decision to keep the events of the competition secret to ensure all the participants would begin the competition without specialized training and advanced notice.

The squads adjusted their training in order to prepare for the competition as best they could and their confidence is high.

"We are not thinking that we are going to win; we know that we are going to win," said OR-3 Andrius Greicius, LDK AMPB, from Lithuania.

"We did stress shooting, swimming, orienteering and a memory test," said Greicius. "They put 10 magazines out in a pattern, then they moved all the magazines. We had to remember how to they were laid out and put them back in the original order. Another thing we did was, while we were patrolling, we had to locate items that the trainers hid from us."

"We did different sports: a timed run, swimming and route marching," said OR-3 Adreas Kling, from Germany, when describing his teams' training leading up to the event.

The German team is composed of Soldiers from different squads within the same platoon. Their training schedules prevented sending a complete squad to the competition, but the unit felt the European Best Squad Competition was important enough to create the composite squad. Their goal is to combine the most disciplined soldiers into a squad of soldiers who can work, train and fight together.

"Our motivation is really high to do our best and win the competition," said Kling. "We look at them all the same, as competitors, and we will be looking to see what they can do."

The exposure to other international Soldiers, their training and practices is a foundation of the European Best Squad Competition, explained Tuck. It builds a network of relationships, capabilities, infrastructure and exercises that help all participants develop disciplined squads, a fundamental fighting unit for all militaries.

Related Links:

Best Squad Competition

Competition Coverage

Best Squad Photos