Video summary
The video features members of the 11th Airborne Division's elite "Best Squad," who recently secured victory in the Easter Pack competition. Staff Sergeant Chad Hale, the squad leader, emphasizes that their success stems from a highly cohesive unit where every member understands their individual strengths and weaknesses. This deep self-awareness allowed them to train specifically to address their vulnerabilities while attacking their differences with 110% effort during shooting drills, obstacle courses, and technical tasks. The team's preparation was rigorous, involving daily physical training sessions focused on recovery and injury prevention, ensuring they remained sharp and ready for any challenge that arose during the competition.
Beyond physical conditioning, the squad thrives on a culture of constant internal competition and mutual accountability. Specialist Ryan Kelcheski notes that the group has spent five months building a tight bond at the division level, which translates into an ability to tackle anything together. This camaraderie is further strengthened by a shared sense of humor and the willingness to lean on one another during difficult moments, as described by Staff Sergeant Robinson. The team operates like an organic unit where non-verbal cues are sufficient to gauge a teammate's condition, allowing them to support each other instantly without needing extensive explanation. This brotherhood ensures that they can maintain peak performance even when facing uncertainty about upcoming events or tasks.
The squad faced significant challenges during the USASOC competition, particularly as underdogs from out-of-state temporary duty assignments competing against teams with local advantages on specific lanes and obstacles. Despite feeling initially disadvantaged, the team's extensive preparation and superior physical capabilities enabled them to overcome these hurdles and finish strong. Specialist McGuire Klemic highlights that the training provided at Buckner was immense, pushing soldiers through intense workouts they had never attempted before, which resulted in significant personal growth and increased lethality. The experience has been transformative, offering valuable lessons and skills that the soldiers intend to bring back to their home units to make their peers more effective.
Ultimately, winning the competition serves a dual purpose: it highlights the exceptional abilities of the Army and provides the squad members with career progression opportunities. By securing the win, the team not only demonstrates what they can achieve but also sets a high standard for future units to emulate. The soldiers express that this has been the greatest experience of their careers, offering unparalleled learning opportunities that extend beyond the immediate competition. The desire to compete every day and the satisfaction of pushing each other to new limits have created an environment where personal and professional growth go hand in hand, making the squad eager to continue their journey despite the end of the current event cycle.
Read the full video transcript
I'm Staff Sergeant Chad Hale.
With the 11th Airborne Division.
And I'm the squad leader for the best
squad. We won Easter Pack.
We're a very cohesive squad. [music]
We've been working really hard. We all
know our strengths and weaknesses and
that really played into helping us train
the right way and attack the difference.
We bring
you know, 110% to each event and each
training session. We've been doing a lot
of shooting,
obstacle courses, repel towers, [music]
we've been working some technical tasks
for EIB.
And then basically just going to A2F,
doing like recovery, [music] injury
prevention, hard PT sessions. Just
staying locked in.
>> [music]
>> Staying locked in and moving as fast as
we can, shooting to the best of our
abilities and uh
just staying on top of each other and
pulling the best out of each one of us.
>> Specialist Ryan Kelcheski, E4, 11th
Airborne Division.
I'm just always looking for
opportunities for other stuff to do
outside of my regular job on the line
and my first sergeant asked me if I
wanted to do best squad and I was like
absolutely. Any time I get to compete,
always down to do that.
Well, we've been together with each
other for going on 5 months now all the
way back at the division level. So, we
built a very tight bond.
Um
>> [music]
>> and yeah, we I feel like we can just
tackle anything that comes our way.
Obviously, a lot of PT, one or two a
days, a lot of tactical tasks,
obstacle courses, a lot of shooting.
I would say one of the most challenging
parts was
just keeping at 100% at all times, you
know, building your teammates [music] up
to wherever we all need to be. Just
holding each other accountable.
Specialist Ebarb, William Reese.
3G, Baker Company. I think the work we
do after 9:00 is what's going to set us
apart. Uh we're big on working on
conditioning, but [music] that's a
quarter of the battle. Uh the hardest
part for us, I think, was just the
uncertainty of what was next. Like there
was some people there that had an idea
of different events we were about to do,
and we kind of just showed up and showed
out when we needed to.
Uh I mean we compete every day. Like we
compete at PT, and then even simple like
EIB taskings [music] and board
knowledge, we're always competing
against each other. And
going back [music] to the camaraderie, I
think that's one of our main things is
just wanting to compete all the time.
Like I see them Monday through Sunday.
And so that's awesome.
So I'm Staff Sergeant Robinson, uh
Charlie Company, 3G, 11th Airborne
Division. Every single day we push each
other really, really hard, but we all
have a very similar [music] sense uh
sense of humor.
And I think that really just kind of
brings us all together. And then when
[music] we're actually out competing,
when things get real hard, we we kind of
lean on one another really, really well.
Doesn't take much. I can look at our
squad leader, Staff Sergeant Hale, and
if he gives me kind of a look, I can
tell if he's feeling really good or if
he's hurting a little bit, and so he and
I can kind of feed off of each other,
[music] and that that goes for every
single man on the team.
Yeah, so the USASOC competition,
>> [music]
>> um we went into it uh really, really
well trained up. We got out there, we
saw a couple of the teams uh that we
were going to be going to be competing
against. [music]
Um
There were some There were some really
solid, solid competition [music] out
there. Our training leading up to that
point though, and our our physical
capabilities, I think, really pushed us
over the
over the finish line in that [music] in
that competition.
Uh this is has really been just the
greatest experience. The training you'll
get, um the just the just the
opportunities, the things that you can
learn and then and then take back to
your units. Uh you can make [music] your
guys more lethal after after all these
experiences. So 100% just do it.
McGuire Klemic, specialist, uh 11th
Airborne.
Feel like we [music]
kind of checked all of our boxes. We
prepared a lot.
Definitely physical aspect. We have
trainers at Buckner who definitely put
us through the ringer.
So, physically prepared and now we're
just kind [music] of hammering it on the
EIB taskings and skills.
I'm super motivated. I mean, I just
don't want this to ever end. Like the
amount of training that I got in the
last 3 months have just been
insurmountable to like [music] what I
have accomplished as a soldier prior
It's uh
been a lot. A lot of learning. I even
grew physically. I've definitely done a
lot of workouts that I would never put
myself through. So, definitely [music]
growing as a person and a soldier. We
were the underdogs. We were from out of
state
TDY. So,
going against people who [music] have
trained on the same lanes and obstacles
that we had to overcome.
Just having that leg up, we kind of felt
at a disadvantage, but we, you know,
gave it our all.
I mean, it is a brotherhood and we are
able to operate as [music] an organic
team even though we got thrown together.
So, I'm going to miss the camaraderie.
>> Winning HQDA would not only highlight
the abilities like of the army in
itself, [music]
but it would also give these guys a
little bit of career progression. So,
that, you know, put a little highlight
[music] on them
and what they can do and what they have
to offer future units.
>> [music]