Rangers change strategy, win competition

[SR-25]

FORT BENNING, Ga. - Twenty-three teams of Army Rangers began Fort Benning's grueling Best Ranger Competition. Only 11 made it to the finish line.

A Friday night road march, which covered 21 miles, eliminated 11 teams. Another dropped out during Saturday's land-navigation event.

Crossing the finish line Sunday afternoon, nearly 60 hours after the endurance test started, were Capt. Corbett F. McCallum and Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Nelson, both of the 4th Ranger Training Battalion at Fort Benning.

"I'm happy - and relieved - that it's over," said McCallum, who finished third in last year's competition. "We felt like we had a good chance to win when we entered this competition, and we did everything we needed to do."

McCallum, whose wife Teri is due to give birth to their first child May 30, said a change in strategy made the difference this year.

"Last year, my partner and I tried to take it easy on the first day to save ourselves for the road march that first night," McCallum said. "But we fell behind because of that. This year, we went hard the first day and tried to get all of the points we could before the road march."

In the top five throughout, McCallum and Nelson did not hold a solid lead until the 12-hour land-navigation competition Saturday night. Their solid performance during that event helped them avoid a wire-to-wire duel with second-place finishers Cpt. Marc Messershmitt and Capt. Fredrick L. Ahern, also of the 4th Ranger Training Battalion.

Messershmitt and Ahern won the competition in 2000.

"We're all brothers out here," Nelson said. "We all train together every day, and it wouldn't have bothered me a bit to finish behind them. I know they feel the same way."

McCallum said that despite the grind of the weekend, he would do it again.

"I'm tired right now," he said, "but this is a good test of our training -- a great opportunity to see what we can do."

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