Best Ranger Competion

If you ever have a chance to attend the Best Ranger Competition or watch it on one of the cable channels, you should do so. These SpecOps soldiers are superbly conditioned. Seeing how tough they are in a peaceful competition will help you to sleep better at night, when you know that these same men are out hunting down the terrorists that wish you harm.

Favorites to sit it out
Injury leaves favored pair sidelined

BY MICK WALSH
Staff Writer

Watching from the sideline Friday as 26 two-man teams begin the Best Ranger Competition at Malvesti Field will be the tandem many considered the favorites, Master Sgt. Matt Wilson and Sgt. 1st Class John Sheaffer.

"I'm sorry to hear they won't be competing," said Corbett McCallum, who teamed with Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Nelson to win the 2005 competition. "They'd have to be considered one of the teams to beat."

But a recent back injury to Wilson, an ultra-marathoner, will keep the Wilson-Sheaffer team, second in the 2004 Best Ranger contest, out of the competition.

"Injuries happen," said Sheaffer, himself a distance runner. "I've missed time with an Achilles problem."

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