Carrow to vie for U.S. Army Best Sapper title April 19

Rehoboth Beach native 1st Lt. Aron Carrow is slated to compete in the 17th Best Sapper Competition from Friday to Monday, April 19 to 22, at Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks. Carrow is part of a two-person team representing 35th Engineer Battalion at Fort Leonard Wood, scheduled to compete against 49 other teams for the Best Sapper title. The competition showcases the Army's elite combat engineering soldiers who support infantry forces. Among other skills, sappers breach fortifications, place and remove landmines, work with explosives and install portable bridges. The name “sapper” is derived from French, and originates from the early days of siege warfare, when military engineers would dig tunnels under castle walls.

During the competition, each soldier will be required to travel more than 60 miles in 58 hours, throughout the wooded and hilly Ozarks, while carrying a rucksack that weighs more than 80 pounds and competing in a variety of events, testing them to their mental and physical breaking points.

Sappers will compete on limited amounts of sleep and will have to complete a series of tasks including demolition, land navigation, steel cutting, mountaineering, a wire obstacle breach, marksmanship, timber cutting techniques, bridge reconnaissance and utilizing handheld mine detectors.

For more information, follow Best Sapper Competition on Facebook.