Two intel instructors head to Best Ranger Competition

FORT HUACHUCA, Arizona - Two military intelligence instructors from the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion will be competing in the 2017 Best Ranger Competition April 7- 9 at Fort Benning, Georgia, representing the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca.

Captains Bill Goldsmith, instructor, 304th MI Bn., and Ray Kuderka, intelligence officer, 304th MI Bn., will be competing in the 34th anniversary of the competition comprised of U.S. Ranger Soldiers.

The Best Ranger Competition was started in 1982, according to the Best Ranger Competition website. The competition has evolved over the past thirty years from one that was originally created to salute the best two-man "buddy" team in the Ranger Department at Fort Benning, Georgia, to determine the best two-man team from the entire U.S. Armed Forces.

Kuderka competed in 2009, but this is Goldsmith's first time competing.

"The craziness that inspired this [year's participation] was Bill," Kuderka said.

"I thought my days of doing Best Ranger were over until the token infantryman showed and came to me in September and said he was looking to do Best Ranger. At the time I just said 'yes,' thinking it was never, ever going to happen," laughed Kuderka, motioning towards Goldsmith.

"Come five, six months of training and all the work done by Bill and some support from our senior leaders here, it came to a reality."

According to Kuderka, the Best Ranger Competition fields anywhere from 50 to 53 teams each year with slots allocated to specific commands. The Training and Doctrine Command only has one annual team slot for the competition, and this year Fort Huachuca's team was selected to represent TRADOC, USAICoE and the fort for the first time in known history.

Kuderka said that he decided to compete again for two reasons.

"Personally, the reason I like doing it is that I get to represent the MI Corps," he said. "The competition is generally people like Bill, the infantryman. So anytime I can represent some of the operations support personnel and show that we can do some of the same tasks is always good.

"The other piece is just being able to build a relationship with your partner. We joke that we spend more time together than with our wives."

Goldsmith said being an infantryman at Fort Huachuca is "unique. Definitely different perspective than what I'm used to, being on the line." Goldsmith said that he decided to compete because "given the opportunity, I've always wanted to do this. Never had the opportunity, timing never worked out, with deployments, command, those types of things. It was a real good opportunity knowing that I had some stability, and I wasn't going to deploy or be out in the field."

Goldsmith joked that Kuderka "was generous…or oblivious enough…to say yes" when Goldsmith suggested they compete.

"I thought it would be a really good opportunity to highlight here what we do at Fort Huachuca," he continued. "I thought this was a good opportunity to highlight the great things they are doing at Fort Huachuca, USAICoE that doesn't get seen across the Army."

Challenges of training

One of the challenges for the Fort Huachuca team is to find the time to dedicate to the training.

"Everything we've done has been extra," Goldsmith said. "Probably every other team has been doing nothing but [training for] this since January. Ray and I have been doing this kind of as moonlighting [while] we've been doing our regular job."

To fit in the extra training on an already busy schedule, the captains have been starting physical training before regular formation times and finishing late in addition to training on weekends.

"We've been doing this since November full time, six days a week, for however long the workout is, whether it's a four-hour ruck march or a two-hour PT session," Goldsmith said.

"This is our first full week where we don't have to do our jobs," Kuderka said.

Being able to spend the time necessary to train and prepare for the competition is vital. Both Soldiers attribute their success to the support of their Families.

"We both have 3 boys each, all under 8," Kuderka said. "Every weekend, I'm walking out the door and the infant is screaming, so I can go train with Bill."

Goldsmith said it means so much that they have the support at home from their spouses and children.

Having support from their battalion commander and commanding general is also important Goldsmith said.

"Its good modeling,: he explained. "Our students that we teach every day can see that we're really putting forth the effort, making ourselves better. It's only going to make us better as a force."

Competition outlook

The Fort Huachuca team is excited to compete but do not have any expectations of how they will place in the competition. Goldsmith said last year's winner is a professional athlete who competes regularly in endurance events and other units have been training for months. Training at Fort Huachuca's relatively high altitude may have a positive impact on their performance.

"[Our] goal is to finish, to make it past the cut on the first night and finish the event," Goldsmith said. "And cross the finish line Sunday afternoon and hold our rifles high."

Of the 53 teams starting the event, only 24 will make it to Day 2, Kuderka explained. The six-hour Foot March held Friday night lasts until 1 a.m. after a full day of physical competitions beginning at 6 a.m. Friday morning. Kuderka said his goal is to "make it through night one."

"The beauty of the competition is that you don't know what's going to be the hardest challenge," Kuderka said. "You find out when you are in it.

"I love that it's a partner competition, it's a team of two. It's ultimately the team. The hardest challenge is understanding your partner -- where they are at mentally, where they are at physically. You're only as strong as the weakest link and anytime you push your partner outside of that comfort zone if you go past that horizon your competition can be over very quickly."

Kuderka said he learned during the 2009 competition that partnership is the most important part of the competition.

"Ray is super-fast, I'm better at strength," Goldsmith said. "We complement each other as partners really well."

Kuderka said he was looking forward to the mental challenge of the competition.

"Whenever you think you can't go any farther, you can't do another event, it's the mind over matter piece," he said. "You just put your head up and continue on to the next event. That never give up mentality that sets our Army apart from others is that we just keep going."