Bullville Army Reserve engineers win Sapper competition

"Battalion! Attention! Winning Sapper team, post!" bellowed Lt. Col. Stephen Dale, commander of Army Reserve's 854th Engineer Battalion out of Saugerties, N.Y., 411th Engineer Brigade, 412th Theater Engineer Command. Companies of the 854th participated in a Sapper Stakes competition during a three-day battle assembly here recently.  Along with individual and crew-served weapons qualification, Sapper Stakes tested Soldiers on combat engineer tasks and skills, such as, bridge classification, simulated demolitions, and emplacing concertina wire.
The competition was important, but the months of training leading up to the event was a major focal point. "The intent is to use Sapper Stakes as a way for first line leaders to focus on individual training events and training tasks that are tied to their engineer mission, and become proficient at those tasks," Dale said. "We build on that training and create a competition where we have 10-man teams selected from platoons in the companies that compete against each other on a list of tasks," Dale said.  Because of the team effort, Sapper Stakes also "builds a lot of esprit de corps," Dale said. Sgt. 1st Class Jaime Solano with the 328th Engineer Support Company, out of Northfield, N.J., thought Sapper Stakes itself as a way to get more training for his Soldiers and not just a testing event.

Retrieved on 16 Jan 14

Written by Sgt. 1st Class Lyndon Miller, 412th TEC Public Affairs

http://www.army.mil/article/118300/Bullville_Army_Reserve_engineers_win_Sapper_competition/