MILITARY MATTERS: Winners of Best Ranger Competition on Fort Benning Take Us Inside the Action

FORT BENNING, Ga. (WTVM) - Some call it a 3-day “suffer fest.” The Best Ranger competition wrapped up last week on Fort Benning and now we’re taking you inside the action of this famous event.

Two-man teams, 51 of them, started the grueling Best Ranger Competition on Fort Benning. After 72 hours of physically and mentally demanding tasks - day and night, with little rest - the winners crossed the finish line.

“I’m totally beat up with scratches, scars, bruises, a couple burns from trying to go fast on obstacle courses, ropes,” Best Ranger Competition winner CPT Tye Boyle said.

“We knew we had the potential to win this thing, but to be up here and actually have won it...feels truly inspirational to us, and humbling,” Best Ranger Competition winner CPT Josh Corson said.

Army Captains Josh Corson and Tye Boyle now have the title of Best Rangers, but they say that title applies more to rangers leading a squad or deployed overseas. Still, the pair tell us they spent 3 months training really hard for these 3 days filled with climbing, running and events, high and low.

“You just do back-to-back physical events, from 3 miles runs to obstacle courses to CrossFit WOD to a swim to more obstacles courses,” CPT Boyle said. “Into a night movement where Josh and I went about 19 miles, we ran 3/4 of that with a ruc sac. You’re spending 45 minutes to an hour in the swamps of Georgia. We’re pretty wet and cold.”

It also included demonstrations of shootings and rescues, as they would do on a mission. And the winning team said there were a lot of lessons learned from this competition.

“Not giving up, there’s going to be setbacks, but with a partner and a battle team, you can overcome it,” CPT Corson said. “As the Bible says, iron sharpens iron. That’s what we did. We made each other better.”

“Every time I come to Fort Benning, it’s a go or no go event, kind of gut check,” CPT Boyle said.

“Winning or losing, if it wasn’t us, the team that was gonna win, it was a well-deserving team,” CPT Corson said.

All the participants in the 38th annual David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition represented the Army at the highest level, and earned some rest.

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