Brother Michael Flint, Beta Psi/Presbyterian 2015, joined the ROTC program his freshman year. For the last four years he had been participating in the ROTC Ranger Challenge at Fort Pickett, Va. – this year, he won.
The ROTC Ranger Challenge is a two day regional competition where teams of ROTC cadets compete in various events. Once one event is completed the team moves on to the next event until all events of the day are done.
“The ROTC Best Ranger Challenge is a team event. There were 38 teams and 11 members per team,” said Flint. “Most of the people on my team had done it before, so we really didn’t go overboard with training. Each day we would get up between 4 and 6 a.m. and participate in events with a 45 pound ruck sack on our backs, or we did non-stop running for 6-7 hours each day. Some of the events were timed,” Flint said.
Events included Marksmanship, Land Navigation, Obstacle Course, Weapons Assembly, Salute Report, Commander Challenge, First Aid, Radio Assembly, Clearing a Bunker, a Raft event and One Rope Bridge.
“The first day we got up at 6 a.m. and participated in the Raft event, Salute Report, First Aid, Marksmanship and Critical Thinking events,” said Flint. “Between each event we were running to the next event wearing a load bearing vest, helmet, carrying a rifle and a 45 pound ruck sack on our backs.”
“For the Raft event, we had to carry water to a boat in the middle of the lake. The people on the boat gave us information on a local terrorist group that we had to remember,” said Flint. “Salute Report is where you report the size of the enemy troops and their actions – location, uniform, time and equipment, and for the First Aid event we had to find an injured person in an urban area, set up security and treat him. We then had to call in the medical evacuation and move him to the pick-up site,” Flint continued.
“For the Marksmanship event we went to the range and fired M4 rifles and M9 pistols. The M4s were zeroed and we did a grouping at 50 meters. The better your grouping the more points for the team. For the M9s we had targets at 25 meters and shot for points,” he added.
The teams are awarded points based on how well they performed at each event. In the end, the best team in each event is awarded a trophy, and the number one team is awarded The Ranger Challenge Winner for the year. There are also individual awards (the only individual awards of Ranger Challenge) for the best male and female score in each event and for best total score, male and female. Flint was awarded “Best Ranger” for having the best total score of all males competing.
“I was happy when I got the award,” said Flint, “but since we had been up since four that morning I was tired,” he said.