FORT BENNING, Ga. — A tank crew with the North Carolina Army National Guard was named the Army’s best tank crew, taking first place in the biennial Sullivan Cup Precision Gunnery Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia.
For the crew members—from C Company, 1st Battalion, 252nd Armor Regiment—simply competing was an honor.
“Competition is going to bring out the best in everybody,” said Army 1st Lt. John Dupre, the tank commander of the winning crew. “All the crews here have done something to get here. They weren’t just thrown together. They won an internal competition or were selected by their units because they are outstanding in their field.”
The competition featured 16 crews from throughout the Army, Marines and Canadian Forces, who battled it out over a week on gunnery, maintenance tasks, mounted land navigation and other similar events all focused on the tank crew’s combat mission.
A crew with the Tennessee Army National Guard’s H Troop, 2nd Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment also competed, placing 11th in the competition.
The competition is a test of physical and mental endurance, said crew members. The standings of each crew changed daily throughout the competition. For a time, the two Army Guard crews occupied second and third place, separated by just two points.
“This competition comes down to just the slightest bit of points,” said Spc. Brandon Sinor, the loader on the crew from the North Carolina Army Guard. “So you have to be mentally and physically prepared for everything. Anything could happen and that slightest thing could move you to first or take you to last.”
For the crew from the 278th ACR, the gunnery portion was the most challenging part of the competition.
“It’s the hardest range I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Tejeda, the tank commander with the 278th ACR crew. “It’s an open range. Targets are hidden. It’s very challenging.”
To tackle the range, and others aspects of the competition, teamwork is a key element.
“Being part of a four-man crew, it takes every crew member knowing the exact details of their job and the ins and outs of this tank,” Dupre said.
Continual practice and training is also key.
“We’ve done this so many times that when it comes down to it, you’re looking to react to what’s in front of you,” said Dupre. “You’re not worried about where your hands are going to be because you’ve done this so many times, you’ve trained for every possible contingency and you’re ready to react when it happens.”
But for Sinor, who competed with a different crew in the 2014 Sullivan Cup, there is one other element that was key to his crew’s success: the mustache, which the crew decided to grow in honor of the competition.
“The mustache is a morale-stache,” he said, adding it was a way for the crew to further bond. He and his former crew grew mustaches two years ago, but he shaved prior to the competition kicking off.
“I shaved my morale-stache just before we got into this and we didn’t do so well,” Sinor said. “Definitely kept it this time and I’d say the morale-stache has helped a lot.”
While the mustache may have improved morale and helped in its own way, Sinor said the road to success came from lots of effort, heart and studying.
“It takes a lot of heart. It takes a lot of strength. It takes a lot of mental agility,” he said, describing what it takes to win at the competition. “You can’t just go in here. You have to study, study, study as well as do a lot of physical fitness work.”
Sinor added that Dupre’s leadership, as tank commander was a key element as well.
“He has a really big heart and will make sure that you know everything about what you’re going into,” he said. “We studied so much because of him. It’s been a really good thing. If it wasn't for him pushing us so hard, I don’t think we’d be where we are today.”
For Dupre, that’s simply part of his job, regardless of the competition.
“As a tank commander and platoon leader, I’ve got two jobs: to lead my troops and train them to be prepared for battle,” he said. “That’s my whole mindset, even when I go into gunnery like this. If we’re called to deploy, are my guys going to be ready to face the realities of what that entails?”
Others have helped as well, Dupre said.
“The crew that you see here today is not just our own doing,” he said, adding their home unit played a big role in getting them ready. “We’ve got guys who know their stuff and who have mentored us to get where we’re at. I’m really proud of our unit and we’re the culmination of the training we’ve received.”
Prior to the competition both Dupre’s crew and the 278th ACR crew spent about a month training at the Army National Guard Warrior Training Center as well.
“Those guys really helped us out and went above and beyond,” said Tejeda, the leader of the 278th ACR crew, of the cadre at the WTC. “They spent countless hours and after hours on the weekend helping us when they didn’t have to.”
Sinor agreed.
“We were at the WTC for a whole month and all the pre-master gunner school instructors shared so much knowledge with us, he said. “I’ve learned so much about weapons here that I didn’t know before. I definitely feel like I can go back and show people—senior [noncommissioned officers]— things they don’t know.”
For Dupre, gaining all that knowledge is a big plus of his crew taking part in the competition.
“The big thing I’m looking to take from this is that when these guys get home they are better prepared to train their future Soldiers,” he said. “All these guys have an amazing career ahead of them. They’re going to be able to work with their peers and make them better and make us better as a whole.”
Though even with all the training—and the extra luck from not shaving his mustache—Sinor said he still felt a bit anxious.
“There’s a lot of pressure and you just try and not psyche yourself out,” he said, adding that all goes away once the first round heads downrange.
“As soon as that first round goes, any anxiety goes away and you’re just throwing in rounds, the gunner is firing rounds and the tank commander is just spitting off fire commands and everything flows,” said Sinor.
In part, being able to quickly send rounds downrange is one thing about tanks that appeals to Dupre.
“My favorite part of being a tanker is just the sheer amount of firepower we bring to the battlefield,” he said. “There’s nothing like it. We can decisively end battles. It’s just an awesome piece of machinery.”
But the tank is nothing without its crew, said Dupre, adding that the successes they’ve had have largely been because of the crew he works with.
“This tank can hurt somebody, either the people outside of it or the people inside of it,” he said. “So when there is this level of risk, being able to count on your guys, rely on them to do their job when they need to and as fast as they possibly can, yeah, that’s close to family.”
And as they head back to their home unit, Sinor said there’s only one thing on his mind.
“To be here, right now and have so much training under my belt is such an honor,” he said. “I just want to be able to go back and share all my knowledge with everybody else.”