Fort Hood Ranger team reflects on Army's elite soldier competition

By Staff Sgt. Michael J Dator (3rd CR)April 22, 2015

Fort Hood Ranger team reflects on Army's elite soldier competition
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Fort Hood Ranger team reflects on Army's elite soldier competition
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The opening day of the 2015 Best Ranger Competition includes the Ranger Malvesti Obstacle Course, three buddy runs, a pond swim, urban assault course, spot jump, stress shoot, land navigation and a foot march ending on Camp Rogers on Fort Benning, Ga... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BENNING, Ga. (April 20, 2015) -- The David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition is a test of physical endurance and mental wits. Many will compete, but only a few teams will actually complete the grueling 62-hour event.

The competition was started in 1982 and continues today as one of the Army's elite endurance competitions. The easy option for most teams is to stop when they feel like they cannot push themselves any farther, but for two infantrymen from the 3d Cavalry Regiment, quitting was never an option.

1st Lt. Roy Glasgow, and 1st Lt. Michael Matthaeus, the incoming and outgoing executive officers assigned to Heavy Troop, 3rd Squadron "Thunder," 3d Cavalry Regiment, completed the 32nd Annual David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition held April 10-12 on Fort Benning, Georgia.

The team originally came up with the idea to compete while they were deployed to Afghanistan earlier last year. The 3d Cavalry Regiment held tryouts for the competition on Forward Operating Base Fenty in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. With only four month to prepare, the team had to act fast in anticipation for the challenging competition.

"We wanted to see how far we could push ourselves," said Matthaeus, a native of Austin, Texas. "The hardest part for us was balancing our everyday jobs and responsibilities while deployed with training-up up for such a prestigious event."

The team traveled to Fort Benning immediately after returning from its nine-month deployment. Long hours were spent with conditioning drills and 12-mile ruck marches in preparation for the competition.

The team finished in 20th place overall - an accomplishment in itself with more than 35 events to include a HELOCAST, unknown distance foot march, night land navigation, written test covering the Ranger handbook, demolitions range, unknown distance kayak, as well as the famous Malvesti Obstacle Course.

"It's really all about teamwork and really knowing the guy next to you," said Glasgow, a native of Philadelphia. "We had to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses going into each event - we would switch who would take lead based on how we were feeling or who was more knowledgeable in one area.

"There were numerous times when our bodies were telling us to quit but the encouragement from our friends, family and unit really helped us push through to see the finish line," he said.

Fifty-two "buddy-teams" competed this year and only 24 made it to the end.

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Related Article: Best Ranger Competition set to return to Fort Benning

Army.mil: U.S. Army Rangers