Posted 11:53 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11, 2022
UWL ROTC Battalion competes in annual competition
UW-La Crosse’s ROTC Eagle Battalion recently finished among the top three teams in an Army challenge competition at Fort McCoy.
The Eagle Battalion had two teams — one nine-cadet team and one five-cadet team — compete in the Task Force McCoy Ranger Challenge competition. The teams competed against other Midwest ROTC teams from six universities in October.
The Ranger Challenge competition is held annually at Ft. McCoy and other Army installations across the Midwest for members of the 3rd Brigade, U.S. Army Cadet Command. The competition is physically demanding and requires additional physical and tactical training alongside the required Army ROTC training. During the competition cadets are tested in land navigation, first aid, one-rope bridge, an eight-mile ruck march, hand grenade course, rifle and pistol marksmanship, weapons disassembly/assembly, and the call for fire simulator.
UWL’s nine-cadet team took first place in rifle marksmanship and finished in third place overall, only 30 points behind the second-place team, UW-Madison. Marquette University won the competition. In addition, UWL’s five-cadet team took first place in pistol marksmanship.
UWL’s teams included cadets from UW-La Crosse, Viterbo University and Winona State University.
“We could not be prouder of these great cadets as they represent their universities and the Eagle Battalion,” says Lt. Col. Brian Knutson, chair of the UWL Military Science Department.