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Some Soldiers rest while others continue readying for the 2012 Best Sapper competition that began in the dark morning hours of April 19, 2012, at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. The 50-mile, 50-hour contest sponsored by the Army Engineer School this year pits...
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As the Army Engineer School's annual Best Sapper competition kicks off at 4:30 a.m., April 19, 2012, at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., with 38 teams of Soldiers vying for the top spot. First on the list of challenges that will take them 50 miles in 50 hours...
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As a CH-47Chinook kicks up a powerful prop wash on a fog-covered lake, Best Sapper competitors tethered to their rucksacks leap from the chopper's ramp into 66-degree water for the 20-minute swim to shore. Thirty-eight teams of two are vying for the ...
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Letting off steam and dripping lake water after the swim in from a helocast, a competitor for 2012 Best Sapper makes his way toward a tent where he can dress in what he hopes are dry clothing. The first Soldier from each team to make it to shore woul...
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Following the helocast, Soldiers in the Best Sapper competition change into dry uniforms, shoulder their rucks filled with wet clothes, grab their rubber M-4 carbines and hit the road. Best Sapper is sponsored annually by the Army Engineer School at ...
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Following the Best Sapper helocast, competitors start down another road, but not until they are rewarded with 4-foot long slosh tubes filled with two gallons of water (16 pounds), half the capacity of the tubes. As the Soldiers march, the water slosh...
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Best Sapper competitors scale a 40-foot tower as part of the day one challenges. Thirty-eight teams of two Soldiers are vying for the top spot in the annual contest that challenges the contestants nearly to the limits of their physical, mental and cr...
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FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Army News Service, April 20, 2012) -- The Best Sapper competition, a centerpiece of the Army Engineer School's annual regimental conference, kicked off in the dark, early morning hours April 19, with 38 teams of two participating, the largest field yet to compete.
The active and reserve-component competitors will move through a course of 50 miles in 50 hours with a variety of obstacles in the way designed to exhaust them physically, mentally and creatively.
In the way of earning the title of Best Sapper stand events such as helocasting into a lake with a packed rucksack, rappelling a 40-foot tower and 100-foot cliff, day and night land navigation problems, obstacles that need to be detonated, thermal breaching exercises and pushing through a gas-mask run.
The final gut-check comes the morning of April 21 after the X-miles run, named so because the competitors have no idea of the run's length, it could be 4, 8, 12 miles or a distance in between.
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