Every morning at 6 a.m. while most students are still in bed, one team of 12 is out training. The team runs between 10 and 14 miles every week, trains with weapons and grenades, and practices advanced land navigation and combat patrolling techniques. They are not training for a class, but they do train for a score.
The team, composed of 11 men and one woman, are the members of ETSU’s ROTC Eddie Reed Ranger Company, and they have been doing these early morning trainings for the past seven weeks as they get ready to compete in this year’s Ranger Challenge this weekend.
At last year’s event, the ETSU Ranger Team placed third in their division, a first for the Eddie Reed Ranger Company. This year’s team has five returning teammates and has added seven new members. This year’s team captain, Justin Chizmar, a junior majoring in political science, hopes to better the standings this year.
“We want to take first,” he said.
Taking first does not come easy. The team will be tested mentally and physically. Among the challenges: an Army Physical Fitness Test, a written exam on land navigation and patrolling, a grenade assault course, and a 10k run. On some events, the team is judged on technique as well as accuracy. Many of these events are timed.
Currently the team trains for one different event each day of the week to be ready to compete against more than 15 other teams from the Army ROTC Fifth Brigade.
Last week during M16 weapons training, the team practiced disassembling and reassembling real M16s. In the actual challenge, the team is graded on speed.
“If you can get it done in a minute or less, it is considered competitive,” said teammate Robert Grey, a senior and criminal justice major. “Not everyone is that fast yet, but by next week, they should be.”
Last week, Grey set a new record for this semester in the M16 competition. He successfully disassembled and reassembled a M16 in 53 seconds.
During the Challenge, only 10 of the 12 teammates will compete in the events. The two remaining teammates are allowed to participate only if one of the competing teammates is injured and is unable to continue.
Led by Capt. Mack Tugman, team members push themselves and each other at every event in order to improve scores and improve the chances of winning overall. Brett Honeycutt, a new member to the team, believes the group effort helps in completing events on time. “When you have a dozen other people pulling for you, it is very encouraging,” he observed.
Teamwork is essential to be competitive in the challenge. For example, in past competitions, only eight of the 10 members had to cross the finish line together during the 10k run. This year, all 10 competitors for each team must cross at the same time. In training for the new regulations, the team puts the slowest members of the team in the front so the faster members can push them through the end of the run. Last week, the team ran the 10k road march in an hour and 20 minutes.
“If we can shave two minutes or more off, we will be in a position to compete with the other teams,” Chizmar said.
The team is not all work and no fun by any means, though after spending nine hours each week, training together for the past seven weeks, they have developed a special camaraderie. “We do have a lot of fun together,” stated senior Jacob McDaniel, the “jokester” of the team according to the other members.
Most of the team members always wanted to be in the Army. Chizmar and Jered Collins, both juniors, were in the Army Reserves. Grey served in the Army before going to college and aspires to be a ranger in the Army after he commissions from ROTC. Savannah Whitt, the only woman on the team, began taking ROTC physical training classes as a way of staying fit for motorcycle racing. She eventually joined the program and now hopes to go into aviation.
Other members of the team include Jacob McCann, freshman; Andrew Ditmir and Nicholas Graff, sophomores, and Josh Frye and Chad Evans, seniors.
Team members must maintain good grades and attendance to compete. The company’s members are majoring in degrees varying from psychology and political science to engineering and criminal justice. They too, must study hard, like most students, but they also must be ready at 6 every morning ready to train hard.

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