LTC Joe Rippetoe (Ret.) remembers what it was like to navigate the dense jungles of Vietnam in the dead of night, with only an occasional, faint glimpse of mountains to help maintain his bearings.

Recently, he watched as 52 rangers put their orienteering and other skills to the test at the 23rd annual LTG David E. Grange Best Ranger Competition at Fort Benning, Ga.

“Our enemy was the surprises we found out there in the jungle. Their enemy is time and fatigue,” said Rippetoe, who has attended the competition for the past few years to present a bronze boot to the first team that completes the march. The gesture is dedicated to the memory of his son, CPT Russell Rippetoe, a ranger who was killed in Iraq in April 2003.

Rippetoe watched from the stands as 15 teams that made it past the rigorous, night-long orienteering event tackled the water-confidence course at Victory Pond. Sitting two rows behind him was 1LT Jimmy Ryan, who placed 16th in the competition in 2001. Like Rippetoe, Ryan recognized the relevance of the events that comprise the competition, including the roughly 20-mile march, a “spot” jump onto Lee Field, the Day Stakes and Prusik Climb at Todd Field, and the Ranger Training Brigade’s fearsome twosome — the Malvesti and the Darby Queen obstacle courses.

“From a physical standpoint, Best Ranger was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Ryan, who spent a year in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade after several years as the 4th Ranger Training Battalion Dive Team supervisor.

“There was never a situation in Iraq when I felt as bad — as exhausted — as I did during the competition. But certainly I was stressed all the time in Iraq, and mentally, the competition prepared me for that,” he said.

Besides the stress, the events Ryan found most relevant from the perspective of a combat veteran were not the “great separators” — the march and orienteering.

“It’s the technical stuff — the weapons familiarization, marksmanship, communications, using the laser range finder, that kind of thing,” he said.

“It’s one thing to be physically fit, but you’ve got to be able to handle your weapon or keep your head in the middle of combat when you’re communicating with three elements at one time. After this competition, Soldiers who competed will go into combat confident they can handle that,” Ryan added.

Good information for the spectators, but for the 42 competitors who’ve already seen combat, the point is moot. In fact, with an average of eight years in service, most have deployed in support of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

It takes “talent, toughness and a call to duty” to step up to the challenge of combat and the Best Ranger competition, said GEN Richard A. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, who greeted the winners at an awards ceremony at the Ranger Memorial at Fort Benning.

“You’ve accomplished what to others would seem impossible,” he said. “You are never satisfied with good enough.”

Cody might have been speaking directly to SFC John Sheaffer, who, along with his teammate SPC Mikhail Venikov, won bragging rights as best of the best for the next year.

Sheaffer was one of the two winners of the second-place team in 2004, with SFC Matthew Wilson. That, apparently, wasn’t good enough; the two planned to compete this year again and were tagged early on as potential winners.

Wilson suffered a back injury that prevented him from competing. So Sheaffer was partnered with Venikov, who came to the States from Russia with his family when he was seven. The two represented the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Unlike the majority of teams that trained for weeks, even months, Sheaffer and Venikov had little time to train together.

Venikov came out strong in the opening events of the competition and captured the pugil championship, putting him and Sheaffer in the early lead. “I’m feeling good,” Venikov said. “Winning this competition would be the greatest accomplishment of my life.”

Venikov and Sheaffer increased the point spread after winning a night road march, and they never let go of their lead. The only knuckle-biter was the race for second and third place. Going into Day Stakes, it looked like the only team with two experienced competitors, 2LT John Agnew and 2LT Donovan Duke, both of the Infantry Officer Basic Course, would come in second, followed by CPT Wesley Davidson and CPT Joshua Eaton, of the Infantry Captains Career Course.

SSG Jeremiah Pittman and SFC Brandon Young, also of the 75th Ranger Regt., were in fifth place at that point. A strong show in Day Stakes and orienteering brought them up to second place by day three of the competition, bumping Davidson and Eaton to third place. Duke and Agnew were then in fifth place, and that’s where they ended the competition.

By the time the teams navigated the Darby Queen and Water-Confidence Course, Pittman and Young had again flipped places with Davidson and Eaton. And that’s where they stayed.

The top winners were as follows: first place, Venikov and Sheaffer; second, Davidson and Eaton; third, Pittman and Young; fourth, SFC Steven Viands and SFC Travis May, 4th Ranger Training Bn.; and fifth, Agnew and Duke.