- [Narrator, Milsted] We spent a week with two tank crews
from Charlie 164-Armor.
- [Instructor] I think they've done an amazing job.
I am proud of those guys, very proud.
- Just getting ready, preparing for the shot,
to get a shot, to go to the Sullivan Cup.
I have learned probably more in these last few weeks,
than any other training exercise I've done combined.
- [Narrator] We met team "Cannonarcy",
and team "Count Tracula".
(tank shots)
And they went head to head, for six weeks.
- I'm getting the chance, to represent,
the entire division.
(tank shot)
I'm really grateful for the opportunity.
It's really humbling.
- Competition brings out excellence.
- That's driving us, we're driving them,
and it's all in the spirit of competition
to make a better team.
- [Narrator] These guys want to be the best.
- I'm ready, I've been waiting for this moment.
- [Narrator] But in the end, only one team
gets to go to the Sullivan Cap.
(upbeat music)
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] They've wrapped their head around this.
- We got an opportunity here to show that we are the best,
in the world.
- [Interviewer] You get to play on the big boy platform.
- This is the Superbowl of tanks.
(tank shot)
- [Interviewer] They want this.
- This isn't your mama's table six qualification.
This is a test to get after
the best tank crew in the United States Army.
We're gonna push everybody to the limits.
We're gonna make it physically demanding.
We're gonna test your
cognitive skills when you get out on the sticks exercises,
to make sure you know how to do the
basic functions it takes to be a tanker.
(tank shot)
And then we're gonna make sure you can come out
and hit with your shoot-end.
(tank shot)
(radio chatter)
- [Interviewer] Sergeant Fauntleroy's crew
was picked to represent the third ID.
The way the Sullivan Cup works is,
you show up, they issue you a tank,
and you use it to compete in a series of events for points.
- So the only points you care about,
are to get into the top four.
After that, nobody cares about your points
because the shoot-off is the only that matters.
The Shoot-off determines who is the Sullivan cup winner.
- So, take us through the competition, briefly,
the different stations, what they do,
and how to get to that last phase.
(loudspeaker)
(clap)
- [Instructor] Well, first they have a competition,
which they call Day Zero.
Sunday, that was the armor, crew and proficiency test.
- It starts off with ammunition lift.
To get 100 points you need to do it 45 times.
And I can only do it 36.
- [Instructor] C'mon, Martin pull!
- C'mon!
- [Instructor] 3, 2, 1, stop!
- [Voiceover, Sgt. Corona] Track-box Shuffle is 20 meters.
You take 10 track-box and you move them back and forth.
Then you have a cable drag for 15 meters.
You drag the cable, pick it up, and you just run back.
Then you have a Rogue Wheel Roll for 240 meters,
basically a baseball diamond.
And you finish off with a one mile run.
- [Voiceover] And they posted the second best crew score,
so we finished in second place.
The Mounted Sticks Lane comprised of a
land navigation course,
and there were five stations
within the land navigation course.
The first station was their start point
and that was prepare for combat.
They prep their vehicle, got ready,
and they moved out and OC followed them.
- And then, things got interesting.
(rattling)
- And the tank is done.
- Their tank broke down.
- Basically, we started our movement,
once we got up here to this intersection,
we was doin' a little tactical polish,
just to make sure our bearings were good.
Sometimes, with certain problems that a tank may run into,
it will self-abort itself, pretty much like a,
I guess self-preservation, if you will.
- Essentially, it was the
tank's "check engine" light coming on.
- Yeah this is where the fault showed up again,
and it's not showing up.
(tank starts up)
- There it goes, it's back.
- [Narrator] So they did some troubleshooting.
- I think we good.
- [Narrator] And eventually they had to pull over,
and just wait for another tank.
- These aren't their tanks,
they literally jumped on this tank a couple hours ago so,
tanks break down. It is what it is.
Hey! Grab the .50!
- [Narrator] They eventually had to transfer all their gear,
and they got back to work.
(tank running)
- [Instructor] They dealt with the,
little three hour hiccup
and then they moved on,
they got to their next station,
which was maintenance.
(crank bolt wrench clicks)
(drill)
(hammering)
They had to break and replace,
a two block section of track.
(tank repairs)
(drilling)
They got beat on time, on that one.
They still got 60 points, they were doing pretty well.
They found all the rest of their land-nav points,
and it got really late, it was about 20:00, 20:30,
by the time they got to the medical sticks lane.
- Just run over here.
- Black-six, black-six, white-three.
- There's no pulse, he's not breathing,
and he's showing no signs of life.
- [Voiceover, Instructor] And they executed,
they got 88 points on that, did really well.
They went to station five, which is again,
at the cantonment area,
and they did vehicle ID,
and that was pretty rough but
they kicked the fourth station right in the seat.
It was occupied BP, did really well,
and they got a 100 points on their land-nav as well so.
- [Narrator] At the end of the day,
they had 811 out of 1000.
And going into the gunnery, they were in 10th place,
out of sixteen crews.
(music)
The digital multipurpose range complex at Fort Benning
is impressive and it'll test any tanker.
- This is not like any other range I've ever been on.
It is not a bowling alley, it is not flat terrain.
And so it's forcing these crews,
and it forces our future leaders
to complete expand everything they know about tank gunnery.
- [Narrator] Gunnery,
(tank shots)
Is one of the crews strengths
and this is where all of that degraded training
at Fort Stewart, hopefully would pay off.
- [Announcer] If your family members perform,
if at any point during the day you have any questions.
(radio chatter)
- Right now, they'll do the PC tank RPG team,
the degraded mode.
And then they'll do their call for fire.
Who you'll have comin' up right now is,
you see 'em approaching the BP is 164-Armor.
So, if we have any 164-Armor fans right here,
here you go, your chance to cheer for 'em.
- [Radio] Identify tank.
- [Radio] Tank!
- [Radio] Ooh!
- [Radio] 14:00
- [Radio] Try and move up.
(rattles)
(radio comms)
(tank shot)
(radio chatter)
- [Radio] I got the PC.
- [Radio] Free!
(radio chatter)
- [Radio] And we have a round stuck in the tube, it's done.
- I overheard you talking about 164,
what was it you said about that?
- They're having mechanical issues,
they took 'em back.
- Nothing they could fix out there?
- No.
- So our crew's out there,
they got one round off,
and now they've hit a malfunction.
What we don't know is,
is if they're gonna be given an alibi, which means,
if it was a fault that was something they couldn't prevent,
they'll give them an alibi
and this won't count against them,
if it's something that they caused, it counts against them.
So, not a great start to the gunnery, but it's what happens,
it's part of being a tanker, and I think that you know,
what they learn through all the training is that,
you gotta be able to adapt to this so,
we're waiting to find out what's gonna happen.
- [Narrator] This was yet another setback,
but our guys put their time to good use
to make sure they were ready if they got another shot.
- Yeah that mount is gone.
- Try it again.
- So we got good news today.
Our team found out they got an alibi,
and that means when the round got stuck in the breach,
it was determined that it wasn't the crews fault.
So that means they got to start fresh,
and they went out and they shot really well,
took second place of all the teams,
and that's kinda like breathing new life into them.
So we're here now, 10 o'clock,
and our crew's actually out on the range doing night fire.
So we also heard you guys took second in the day run.
- Second highest score in the day run.
- Yeah.
- You did a good run on the night?
- It could've been better, if I just,
trusted in my TC more,
I couldn't identify truck and troop target,
but he could so
it is what it is, I mean.
- I think Corona is beating himself up a little bit.
Their last engagement was, they fire off some flares,
to simulate that they're being fired on
and he didn't see them.
They're in it to win it,
and they're working through the challenges, you know.
And tomorrow's the last day to give it their all,
and see where the cards lay after that.
(music)
(tank shot)
- Think about that crew that wins this thing,
when they go home and they turn around and say
"you know what, we won this, and this is how we did it."
- No way.
- Did they get bumped down?
- No no no, they're in third place, man.
- Third place?
- Yeah they came up from 10th to 3rd.
They got second best last nice, wow.
- Back on the map! Back on the map.
- [Milsted] Heard the good news man.
- [SSG Fauntleroy] Yes we're here.
- [Milsted] Yeah!
So today, you're just gonna go do what you do.
- We got three engagements,
three engagements to solidify our position in the top four.
And uh,
it's game on!
- I know you're excited, but you know,
having followed you guys, we're just, we're stoked.
- [Narrator] And going into the final gunnery,
they were confident, they were focused.
You know, barring any major malfunction,
they should make the top four.
- [Instructor] Looking at that,
I don't have any affirmative things to say that,
why you missed those targets.
(solemn music)
- [Narrator] If you're good at reading facial expressions,
their faces speak volumes.
- Four seconds from when you moved up to the engage,
getting a doubtful left,
over on target two at 14, they backed down at 16.
- [Narrator] Phrases like "doubtful left"
and "over" or "short"
are not what a tanker wants to hear in an AAR.
- [Instructor] You got over on target three.
- [Narrator] It means they missed.
- [Instructor] So the points on first engagement,
zero and zero on the next two engagements.
Okay, giving you a total for the day, 50 points.
- [Narrator] And that's out of a possible 300.
- [Instructor] Alright, I'm gonna put you guys on a
little break.
- [Narrator] Sergeant First Class Matt Nygren delivered
the news with as much encouragement as he could,
the wait now was to see if they'd go home.
- Just do the best?
- No news is good news right now,
we're waiting on two more crews to finish their AARs,
and the final scores to come in to notify you on the points.
that's how tight this competition is getting.
- What's the field lookin' like?
- I can't say, I'm just gonna tell you,
that no news right now is good news because, that means,
we're not sending you out the door right now.
(inhale)
- Alright,
(exhale)
we are back at the hotel
and we are waiting for news.
Today was a crazy day, it was a rollercoaster ride.
When we arrived this morning, our guys that we knew,
were in 10th place, and it was actually on the way out,
that we were checkin' the facebook site,
and found out that because of their night gunnery,
they had moved to 3rd place.
So the last phase was today,
and that was their last damn gunnery,
and um,
they did not do well.
So ,you know, we're just,
we're just waiting to hear
(nervous laugh) you know
whether they make the top four,
because the top four is where they need to be
to be able to compete in the top gunnery tomorrow,
and if we don't hear tonight then,
(cell phone alert)
you know we'll just find out on..
Wait a minute,
they said they might text us tonight so,
gimme a sec, this could be it.
(exhale)
- I think everybody who is still in the Army
has an obligation to make sure that we continue to be
adaptive and innovative
and continue to strive for excellence.
So if we can instill that in our junior ranks,
in the soldiers that are coming through this competition,
think about,
that 16 crews that now can go home to 16 different places
and talk about what it takes to be the best here.
- So there was a tie for fourth place,
which means five crews when to the shoot-off
and our guys, they missed it by one shot.
- I have a better picture of what exactly we need to do
to truly become more proficient armor crewmen.
- We're bad tank crew,
I learned that we're better than we thought we were.
- [Narrator] Really, this competition
is about seeding excellence
or planting the seeds of excellence
in the tank community.
- [SPC Martin] A great honor to come down here,
and compete for the best
and I mean,
I'll be back in two years.
I'mma win in two years. That's what I'm taking out of this,
is motivation to come back.
- [SPC Felton] This is a great experience,
I mean, in my eyes,
it's a once in a lifetime thing.
I mean it's not everyday, that you're gonna go
somewhere and have a best tank competition
and your name just so happened to come, pop up.
- [Narrator] Any team that goes is exposed to the training,
and all these other great tank crews in the competition,
that make them better tankers as a whole.
Yeah you have a winner,
but everybody that comes is better for it.
- It helped our resilience a lot overall,
it helped my resilience a lot.
I'm a pretty resilient person before this,
but this made me even stronger with this competition.
- [SSG Fauntleroy] I was honored to be in a position,
to give the best of the best a run for their money.
I was honored to be in a position
where the best of the best were like,
"Aw man, we gotta watch out for those guys, from 3rd ID."
- When you tell stories like this,
you always hope your team's gonna win,
and our guys didn't.
But I wouldn't have it any other way because,
what we saw, is the level of resiliency.
And that these guys, no matter what,
they kept running hard after their goal.
I mean, that's what it's about.
It's about not quitting, it's about perseverance.
And they showed us the best of that.
(music)