Warriors show no mercy during grueling Best Sapper competition

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Two 75th Ranger Regiment Soldiers used the violence of action strategy to dominate the competition, earning the title of Best Sappers during the 18th Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers Best Sapper Competition held April 25-28, 2025, at Fort Leonard Wood.

In addition to earning the title of Best Sappers, Capt. James Mitchiner and 1st Lt. George Madden, both stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, were the top finishers in three of the six awarded events — the X-mile Ruck, Round Robin and Sapper Stakes.

“It is important to display strength, technical competence and lethality in competitions like these. It demonstrates our ability to operate under austere and challenging circumstances,” Mitchiner said.

The team also understood how to succeed, he said.

“To be successful at the Best Sapper Competition, it was crucial to take a tactical pause, assess the requirements of the task, consult with my teammate and then execute violently,” Mitchiner said.

The competition's concept is to not only determine the next Best Sapper team but to challenge and test the competitors’ expertise, stamina, ingenuity and fortitude. The competition, which began in 2005, showcases many capabilities of the Army’s combat engineers.

“Teams that show up to participate in the Best Sapper Competition are elite engineers at the cutting edge of our country’s sword,” said Capt. Stephen O’Brien, Sapper Training Company commander. “I was impressed by the levels of intelligence and grit of the competitors this year.

He said the organizers expected competitors to perform “highly technical tasks under extreme levels of stress, day in and day out.”

“Not only did competitors continue to perform physically, but they were able to receive and process a high level of information rapidly and accurately,” O’Brien said.

To compete, at least one team member must have earned a Sapper tab from the U.S. Army Engineer School’s 28-day Sapper Leader Course, which is celebrating 40 years of training this year. It is a tab both Mitchiner and Madden proudly display on their uniforms.

Mitchiner said he started preparing for this year’s competition in August of 2024, when he graduated from the Sapper Leader Course, and it felt “incredibly rewarding” to win.

“It means that I now have a responsibility to honor the title by continuing to hold myself to a high standard and giving my best in all I do. I am honored to be a part of a long line of Best Sapper winners and am thankful to be a part of the Sapper and engineer community,” Mitchiner said.

Madden said he was extremely grateful for the experience.

“There was a lot of preparation and anticipation leading up to the competition that made it fulfilling to leave with a victory,” Madden said. “I believe the title comes with the responsibility to hold yourself to a high level of discipline and professionalism and I look forward to upholding the expectations associated with the title.”

Col. Stephen Kolouch, U.S. Army Engineer School commandant, said teams covered more than 50 miles on foot and described the competition as inspiring to watch.

“You can draw a straight line from these warriors to lethality on the modern battlefield,” Kolouch said. “They exemplify what it is to have a warrior culture and be lethal.”

Seventy competitors, in 35 teams of two, unexpectedly started the competition at the opening ceremony April 25 in Nutter Field House when Kolouch surprised competitors standing in formation by announcing, “Sappers, ready, set, go,” during his closing remarks.

The field house doors burst open, and the competitors’ combat training kicked in as they rapidly deployed to their first physical event, a ruck race across Fort Leonard Wood’s hilly terrain.

“I was caught off guard, but I had a feeling something would kick off from the opening ceremony after I noticed a clock on the stage,” Mitchiner said. “My teammate and I reminded each other that it all starts now, and we are as ready as we will ever be. It’s time to execute.”

The next morning, competitors and several Sapper Leader Course instructors made a grand entrance to Waynesville’s Roubidoux Park in a CH-47 Chinook. Instructors rappelled from the helicopter before it landed to let competitors charge toward the obstacle course’s starting line.

Competitors spent more than 70 hours traversing, on foot, land, air and water — being tested mentally and physically with written tests, obstacle courses, land navigation, underwater tasks, weapons qualifications and several combat engineer specific challenges.

“My favorite event was the urban breach lane during Sapper Stakes. It was an opportunity to display the chemistry and synchronization between my teammate and I to complete a task under pressure,” Mitchiner said.

During the urban breaching lane April 27 at Training Area 167B competitors were tasked with demonstrating proficiency in mechanical and explosive breaching.

Madden said it was also his favorite event of the competition.

“It was a great challenge of teamwork and problem solving,” he said.

At the awards ceremony, Kolouch thanked the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Leonard Wood, 1st Engineer Brigade and 169th Engineer Battalion for organizing the competition, which captured “the rapidly evolving character of war.”

He said the Sapper Leader Course displayed some of that evolution during the competition by integrating technologies, such as drones, modernized demolitions and robots into the challenges.

“The Sapper Leader Course of tomorrow, and the Best Sapper Competition, will look different in the future and that is OK because ingenuity and grit will continue to be the hallmarks of Sappers,” Kolouch said.

Second place went to Capt. Joseph Anchondo and 1st Lt. Lucas King with the 65th Engineer Battalion, 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. They also won the Night Land Navigation event. Third place was awarded to 1st Lts. Trent Aldrich and Samuel Kicklighter, with the 2nd Regimental Engineer Squadron in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The winners of the X-Mile Run event were Staff Sgt. Tanner Worthington and 1st Lt. Clayton Hanson with the 6th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 11th Airborne Division in Fort Richardson, Alaska. The winners of the Nonstandard Physical Fitness Test event were Cadets Isaiah McNeilly and Samuel Dickerson from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

To view more photos from the competition, visit Fort Leonard Wood’s Flickr page.