Their ruck sacks were packed. Their boots tied tight. They participated in the Ranger Challenge competition this weekend and got fifth place of six teams.

Our UAF Army Reserve Officer Training Core or ROTC cadets went to Boise, Idaho to compete in the Ranger Challenge, a two-day six-event competition of ROTC abilities.

Cadets from the program tried out for the 11 spots on the Ranger Challenge team and those with the best physical training or PT scores and the most military knowledge were chosen. Once chosen, the cadets training for the Ranger Challenge had to condition an extra two days on top of the regular three-day per week training.

Over the course of the competition, cadets compete in six separate activities. Each activity is timed and given a point value. Whichever team completes the event the fastest is awarded the allotted amount of points. The activities in which the cadets participate are: land navigation, grenade throw, M-16 assembly and disassembly, construction of a rope bridge, a road march, and a physical fitness test. "The Ranger Challenge is considered an NCAA sport," says team captain Steven Foreman. Even though not many schools participate it is still an honor to win the event.

During the navigation exercise the cadets must plot latitude and longitude coordinates on a map and also go into the field and find certain coordinates. In the grenade throw, which UAF’s team received a second place in, a non-active grenade is used.

Jordan Gambrell, a three-year veteran, described them as "a grenade that is the exact same, just without the loud bang and the shrapnel. When it goes off it makes a little pop sound." The M-16 assembly and disassembly is a straightforward contest and all about speed and getting the gun together correctly.

For the rope bridge competition, Cadets tie a rope between two trees on adjacent sides of an obstacle such as a river or gully. Then cadets swing under the rope and pull themselves over the obstacle. This event is timed from the moment the rope is touched by a cadet to the time everyone and the rope are clear the obstacle. The road march and physical fitness test are a series of timed events that challenge the cadet’s cardiovascular abilities.

The road march is the UAF cadets’ favorite exercise. "It tells which team is physically fit. It sets the teams apart and can bring you into the lead," says Andrew Clark, who has done the competition for three years. As the road march is worth the most points in the competition, it is an important event to win.

Relative to other schools, the ROTC program at UAF is small, consisting of only 40 members. This makes for stiff competition when UAF competes against schools that have a program consisting of 100 or more members. In addition, the competition includes several new schools this year. Besides Hawaii and Guam, the schools who usually participate; Montana, Idaho, and Washington will make this year’s Ranger Challenge even more competitive. Nanook cadets train long and hard to make up for the low numbers. While most students are fast asleep or just settling in for the night, our ROTC members were conditioning and practicing the difficult rope bridge.