TOPEKA (KSNT) — Soldiers at Fort Riley are holding a grueling competition this week.
Fort Riley troops are holding their annual “Best Squad Competition.” It began with a swimming competition, a field event and wrapped up with a 12-mile-long run.
Military officials said it’s all designed to keep the soldiers prepared for deployment and active duty. 27 News spoke with two participants of the event who told said that it’s a challenging, but important exercise.
“If it wasn’t the hardest thing we were doing, I don’t think we’d be doing it right,” said Kadin Graham, one of the squad leaders at the event. “We’re always striving to make things as hard as possible so that when that day comes and our nation tells us to go somewhere and do something, it seems easy in comparison.”
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“I think this competition has been one of the best times in the Army for me as well as for my squad,” said squad leader Ruben Robles. “We have a pretty good group.”
On Thursday morning, the 1st infantry Division announced that a group of their soldiers were the winners of the competition. Out of the 11 teams that competed, team “Long Knife” came out on top.
The Squad Leader for the winning team, Jerico Kelley, said, ““I’m honored to have led this team, they’re a great group of Soldiers and they really left it all on the field.”
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