U.S. Army National Guard soldiers came from every corner of the country to "embrace the suck" while they compete in the 2017 Best Warrior Competition.
This year, planners chose Camp Ripley to host the four-day trials, which test soldiers in endurance, precision and versatility. Huge, insistent drops of rain Tuesday made for excellent puddles and mud pits for the competitors to have to navigate.
The competition is sort of a military "Great British Baking Show," in that the participants don't know in advance what they'll be made to do, they don't get specific instructions when they're doing it and they don't know how well they're scoring until the end. For one event, the "unknown distance" course, soldiers ran without knowing when they would be allowed to stop running. For the "stress fire" event, soldiers ran an obstacle course in full gear, then fired a belt-fed machine gun, then their M4 carbine, then dragged a man-sized weight simulating a casualty across a field, then fired their M9 pistol from behind cover.
Each region of the country is represented by two-man pairs consisting of one noncommissioned officer and one junior enlisted man, for a total of 14 soldiers spread across seven regions. Winners will move on to represent the entire U.S. Army National Guard as it competes against other U.S. Army major departments in October at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia. Representing the Midwest were Spc. Robert Kniprath of Wisconsin and Minnesota's own Staff Sgt. Daniel Sebo, from Winona.
Sebo said he got second place at the state-level competition last year, which spurred him to try and do better this year. He did-winning not only state but also regionals, putting him in line to compete on his home turf for the nationals at Camp Ripley.
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Competitors like Sebo have to be ready for anything, because in addition to keeping them in the dark about what they'll have to do, the organizers will continually throw extra little surprise challenges at them to see how they adapt to adversity. For example, during a portion when Sebo was tested on using his M4 carbine, the rifle continually jammed, tripping him up when he was supposed to be firing. Sebo said later he figured out that the jams were engineered by the organizers.
Despite the difficulty, he likes competing because it means finding out how far somebody can push themselves.
"It's a good opportunity to challenge yourself, see what you're capable of, while also really just improving your overall soldier skills," Sebo said.
His opponents were so skilled, Sebo said he wouldn't feel that bad if he lost.
"If there's any group that I'm OK (with) losing to, or not coming in first, it's this group here," he said. "The caliber of noncommissioned officers and soldiers here is really astounding."
Sgt. Maj. Darin Mjoen, one of the organizers, said planning for the July 17-20 event at Camp Ripley began immediately after last year's Best Warrior competition in Massachusetts. Although they were happy a Minnesota boy got to play on his home field, the organizers also faced an additional challenge because of Sebo's home state status, Mjoen said.
"We obviously want to be transparent," he said. "We want to make sure that we're not giving any indication of any unfair advantage to the Minnesota soldier who's competing here."
Therefore, only a select group of people in Minnesota knew of the competition plans ahead of time, he said.
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The Camp Ripley staff devised a Minnesota-themed event roster, including some challenges at Lake Itasca, Mjoen said. He added Mother Nature also contributed some quintessentially Minnesotan obstacles, like severe summer weather that postponed part of the events and a vigorous contingent of mosquitoes and gnats pestering the competitors.
"It doesn't get much more Minnesotan than that," Mjoen said.
