Best Ranger Competition, family style

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No way can the son fall out...lol


Father, son team up for Ranger competition

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 17, 2007 10:44:09 EDT

As competitors ramp up for this weekend’s Best Ranger Competition, one two-man team has already made history.

Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Greenway and his son, Staff Sgt. Brandon Greenway, are the first father-son team known to sign up for the brutally demanding competition. They are each first-time competitors.

Father and son began training in December for the events that begin 6 a.m. Friday at Fort Benning, Ga.

“We’ve been doing lots of road marching and stuff like running, the obstacle course, hands-on events, weapons, land navigation,” the younger Greenway said.

“He’s been giving me tips on running, he’s a big runner, and I’ve been helping him with some of the weapons stuff because he hasn’t done much of that since he’s been sergeant major,” Brandon Greenway said.

The event, he said, is something his father has wanted to do together for some time, “but the timing was always off because I kept deploying,” Brandon Greenway said. “I feel it’s exciting. It’s like a landmark.”

It’s more than a landmark for his father, who at 47 will become the oldest competitor in the 24-year history of the competition.

“I feel as good or even stronger than when I came into the Army. I don’t heal as fast but, other than that, I’m ready,” said Doug Greenway.

The elder Greenway is command sergeant major for the Infantry Schools and is retiring May 4 after 28 years on active duty, 20 of which were spent in 75th Ranger Regiment.

Brandon Greenway joined the Army 4 1/2 years ago and has deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

Doug Greenway recalled how he watched his son leave high school, where he was in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, join the Army, go to Airborne School and then succeed in the Regimental Indoctrination Program and Ranger School.

“I got to pin the Ranger scroll on his left arm, I pinned on his Ranger tab after Ranger School and I got to see him come back three times from doing his duty to his country,” Doug Greenway said. “This [competition] is the pinnacle of what I could ever do with him.”

The 60-hour, no-sleep endurance competition is so tough that typically after the first night, during which there is a road march of 24 miles or more, less than half the two-man teams remain standing.

The road march, in Brandon Greenway’s estimation, is a potential weak point for the father-son team.

“It’s just a hard event to do. I think the rest of the events we can pull each other through,” he said. “We’ve always done things together.”

The older Greenway is confident he and his son will pull through to the end, he said, predicting “maybe I’ll have to carry his ruck at some point.”

“We’re not in this to win. We’re just out to have a good time, shoot some bullets, jump out of an airplane and cross the finish line with our rifles held high,” Doug Greenway said with a hearty laugh.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/04/army_fatherson_ranger_070416w/
 
The older Greenway is confident he and his son will pull through to the end, he said, predicting “maybe I’ll have to carry his ruck at some point.”

LMAO

I always got a charge out of being 3/4 of the way through the 2 mile run event, and passing guys 10 years younger, huffing and puffing, who were just a little beyond the quarter mile marker. If I really wanted to rub it in, I'd make a show out sucking wind and suffering a heart attack.:D

I saw the Best Ranger competition a few years back on Discovery, that is one brutal contest.

Anybody on the board ever participated?
 
Awesome, good for them!

Ive only seen it once on TV, there were a couple of blokes from Delta IIRC, thing that amazed me about them is they got back from a combat deployment a day or two earlier and had zero training for the event, they lead for the first two days IIRC and finished about 5th, incredible.

Very Very tough competion, my hat is off to anyone who starts it.
 
Sounds like another good competition. I really enjoy the ones I've seen on TV.

Those two are already winners...
 
One of my favorite parts of the contest is when the participants arrive at a station about halfway through the event, and are presented with a box full of several disassembled weapons, all mixed together, and their task is to reassemble them all within a certain time limit, with a successful function check of each weapon at the end.

I'm pretty sure that one event has knocked more than a few otherwise competetive teams out of the contest. It's a test of the mental as well as physical, which really adds another dimension, I think.
 
Talk about motivation!!

If there's one person you can't quit in front of, it's got to be your father (or son).
 
Don't they mix up some of the events year to year too....

Which year was it that they had a hatchet throw? I heard somewhere (can't remember) that some of the events are kept secret untill day of. Is that true?


....sure beats the hell out of watching 'survivor'
 
Kind of takes the the father/son three legged foot race at the company picnic to a whole other level.

Which year was it that they had a hatchet throw?

I think that was the first year it was televised, 2002 if I'm not mistaken. I'm not saying the that the participants got a warning order about that task (like knowing about an EDRE or H&W inspection beforehand), but those guys looked like they all had gotten in some practice throwing those hatchets.
 
Their are always the Core Events, But they do change it up.
Every Task/event is not that Bad, but when you do it Back to Back, little or no sleep, its a Mother (no I have not done it, but helped with training a few).

I like the Land nav now where they wear GPS so you can see their Route.

All in all Very Good Stuff, and that Prusik Climb is a Mo Foe!
 
Looking around on their site I found this schedule:

Best Ranger Competition events are not published until the day before the competition starts. However, traditionally the following have been standard events.

Friday, April 20th
Competition begins at RTB HQ (0600)
Traditional Events
PT Test
Spot Jump
Marksmanship
Begin Footmarch

Contributor IceBreaker - (1800 at Host Hotel)

Saturday, April 21st
Traditional Events
End Footmarch
Night Ranger Stakes (skill events)
Day Ranger Stakes - Todd Field (skill events)
Prusik Climb - Todd Field
Begin Land Navigation

Contributor Social - (1800 at RTB Hall of Fame)

Sunday, April 22nd
Traditional Events
End Land Navigation
Water Confidence Test
Helo Cast
Darby Queen Obstacle Course

Super Supper - (1500 post competition)
 
I contacted a few site about the BRC airing on TV. I've only gotten one reply so far.

bestrangercompetition.com wrote:

Ma'am...I believe that we have a production crew onsite that will be doing a one hour documentary for the Discovery Channel, but that looks like all we will have. The air date will probably be in the July/August timeframe.

-----------
Schedule:
https://www.infantry.army.mil/bestrangercompetition/content/schedule.htm
 
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