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Awards
One of the teams competing is from the former 172nd SBCT, now the 1/25 SBCT.
When the 24th annual Best Ranger Competition begins Friday at Fort Benning, Ga., 78 two-man teams will hit the dirt and start pumping out push-ups, embarking on a 60-hour odyssey that one organizer called the “endurathon.”
The mental and physical contest is one of the Army’s toughest. More soldiers are competing this year than in the past five. [...]
Just back from 15 months in Iraq is an enlisted officer team from U.S. Army Alaska, Sgt. Giancarlo Urzi, 27, and Capt. Matthew Kirby, 26. Kirby was Urzi’s platoon leader during their deployment with 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which is now 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
“The idea was hatched in Iraq,” Urzi said, describing Kirby as “very motivational.”
Urzi and Kirby trained at Fort Richardson, Alaska, after they returned from Iraq.
“I just expect to learn a little bit about each other and about ourselves. Obviously, everybody who is here is a Type A person and wants to win the competition, but when it boils down to it, you’re competing against yourself,” said Urzi, who has been in the Army for four years. “In my mind, anything that can bring the Army together as a whole and take away the stresses of the every day world [is] a good thing.”
Urzi and Kirby are first-time competitors and champing at the bit to get going.
“Everybody looks physically fit; everybody’s sharing where they’ve been and what they know. It’s just a great bunch of professional guys. I think it’s going to be a heck of a competition,” Urzi said.
The event continues at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and culminates Monday at 10 a.m. with an awards ceremony at the Ranger Memorial.