Competitors vying for the Best Sapper title have arrived on Fort Leonard Wood and are ready for their first event at 5 o’clock Friday afternoon

It’s about to go down — competitors vying for the Best Sapper title have arrived on Fort Leonard Wood and are ready for their first event at 5 o’clock this afternoon in Waynesville’s Roubidoux Park. The 17th Lieutenant General Robert B. Flowers Best Sapper Competition runs through Monday and showcases many of the capabilities of the Army’s combat engineers. The competing sapper teams will be flown by Blackhawk helicopters to Waynesville park, unloaded, and will take part in the first Best Sapper event, a Nonstandard Physical Fitness Test event. Captain Ryan Reid, Sapper Training Company commander, tells us what to expect from the Sapper teams.

This kickoff event will also feature military vehicle static displays and music by the 399th Army Band. The sapper competitors will be mingling with onlookers and will interact with them at the event. The public is invited to attend this free event. And Waynesville Mayor Sean Wilson urges people to come early and park their vehicles.

Then, the one hundred Soldiers, in 50 teams of two, will move on to Fort Leonard Wood to complete a series of tasks, including special steel cutting, mountaineering, a wire obstacle breach, marksmanship, timber cutting techniques, bridge reconnaissance, utilizing handheld mine detectors and a Bangalore breach.
Last year, competitors covered 60 miles in 58 hours with little to no sleep. Two of those competitors — and the winners of the 2023 Best Sapper Competition — Captains Matthew Cushing and Joseph Palazini, from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, are back this year to defend their title.
The winners of the 2024 Best Sapper Competition will be announced at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Nutter Field House during the closing ceremony.