Soldiers from nine countries are competing on Oahu this week to see which of them is the best as they test themselves on their fitness and fighting skills.
On Monday at Schofield Barracks they did a “stress shoot,” in which soldiers ran, climbed and pushed themselves physically to push up their heart rates and breathing before shooting at targets. Soldiers from each squad cheered each other on and pushed each other as comrades struggled.
“The goal is for them to be able to control their breathing and their heart rate so they’re able to engage the targets,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Jason Schmidt, the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) at Fort Shafter.
After that, they carried heavy sandbags up the road taking them up to Kolekole Pass.
It’s part of the inaugural Pacific Land Forces Team Readiness Challenge, a new competition hosted by USARPAC. Along with 91直播-based troops, the six-day competition brings participants from Malaysia, the Philippines, Fiji, Mongolia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom sending their best troops.
Schmidt said that about a year and a half of planning went into putting it together. He said that “this is a competition which is designed around a team. It helps first to build interoperability, both the tactical and professional or intellectual interoperability, and then also it fosters relationships between our nations out there.”
The U.S. military has been working to tighten its alliances across the Pacific as it competes with China for power and influence. 91直播 is the nerve center of its operations across the region, and is increasingly being used as a multinational training ground for the U.S. and its allies.
Though it’s a competition, Schmidt said that who actually wins is secondary.
“Winning matters, that’s what each country wants,” said Schmidt. “But the relationships, the friendships, the networking, all of that is kind of some of the intangible outcomes we’re looking for as well.”
As they compete, Army leaders say they’re also learning from each other.
“It’s designed in such a way that there is interaction and they can learn from one another,” said Australian Army Warrant Officer 1 Craig Batty, who is currently stationed at Fort Shafter working with the U.S. Army. “How they demonstrate different skills. There are ways that soldiers will inherently do things, but countries bring different things to the party.”
Batty said that “partners are strongly together, and if our training is aligned, and we can demonstrate the same skill sets … we can rely on our partners to perform at the same standard that we would expect.”
The participating countries have all sent troops around the world for a variety of missions ranging from active combat to U.N. peacekeeping, disaster relief and embassy evacuations in times of crisis.”
“You don’t want to build a relationship in (crisis) the first time,” Schmidt said. “So a lot of this will help nest ties across the region. They’ll see each other on different campaigns and exercises as we continue to do that throughout the year. So there’s just so many holistic and good benefits to a competition like this.”
Schmidt said that the competition fits into a wider USARPAC “enlisted leader development strategy” for the region, focused on training and promoting exchanges focused on sergeants rather than just officers.
Army leaders have worked to promote the concept of a “land-power network” linking the U.S. and its allies in the region, which is largely defined by the vast blue ocean. As the U.S. military branches have fought each other for funding and resources, Navy and Air Force leaders have at times sought to play down the Army’s role in the region.
But in a keynote address opening last year’s annual The Land Forces Pacific Symposium — or LANPAC — the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s top officer, career naval officer Adm. Samuel Paparo, embraced a mantra Army officers have used for years, saying that “human beings live on the land” and told the audience of soldiers from across the globe that “the Army provides the backbone of our ability to sustain combat power across the region.”
Schmidt said the winners of this week’s competition will be announced at LANPAC next week in Waikiki. There are also several countries with military personnel visiting 91直播 as USARPAC gears up for LANPAC this week that were out at Schofield observing the competition.
Batty said that “we hope, with some of the observers with teams that haven’t attended, then they will come next time,” noting that his own country wasn’t among those participating.
For some of the U.S. troops hosting visitors, it has been at times humbling.
The British Army sent a squad from its legendary Royal Gurkha Rifles, which recruits its soldiers from Nepal. As the Gurkhas flew through the stress shoot with comparative speed and precision, several American soldiers running the exercise watched them awestruck. After they went on to the next challenge, one American watching the Gurkhas march off said “I wish I had a whole platoon of those guys.”
Among those out watching the competition was Maj. Gen. Chimedgochoo Tsogtjargal, the commander of the Mongolian Army. He whipped out his phone and took pictures as Mongolian participants arrived. One American sergeant, in describing the Mongolian troops’ discipline during training, said they were like “cyborgs.”
“That is a landlocked country between China and Russia, most of them have never seen the beach,” said Batty. “(This competition also) affords the soldiers the opportunity to come to 91直播 and take part in the local culture, some of the local customs.”
On Thursday after the competition wraps up, all nine squads are scheduled to spend a “cultural day” going out into the community and hitting the beach.
