EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A soldier from El Paso is scheduled to compete in the Army’s Best Sapper Competition.
The competition, which showcases skills from the Army’s elite combat engineering soldiers, will be held April 19-22 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Staff Sgt. Dwayne Jones, an El Paso native, will be part of a two-person team representing the 299th Brigade Engineer Battalion from Fort Carson, Colorado. Jones and his teammate will compete against 49 other teams for the coveted title of “Best Sapper” in the entire Army.
The competition will showcase skills like breaching fortifications, placing and removing mines, working with explosives and installing portable bridges.
During the competition, “each soldier will be required to travel more than 60 miles in 58 hours, throughout the wooded and hilly Ozarks, while carrying a ruck sack that weighs more than 80 pounds and competing in a variety of events, testing them to their mental and physical breaking point,” according to a news release sent out by Fort Leonard Wood.
Sappers will compete on limited amounts of sleep.
The name “sapper” is derived from French, and originates from the early days of siege warfare, when military engineers would dig tunnels under castle walls.
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