Competitors line up their shots during the International Sniper Competition on Friday, April 10, 2026 at Fort Benning, Ga. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
FORT BENNING, Ga. — Hundreds of soldiers gathered this week at Fort Benning, determined to establish themselves as the most skilled Rangers, the best at shooting mortars and sniper rifles, the top hand-to-hand fighters and the Army’s best jumpmasters.
The installation’s annual Infantry Week competitions attract some of the most skilled soldiers in the U.S. Army, and some troops from across its sister services and partner nation armies.
“In the infantry, we have a moral obligation to ensure that every soldier is trained to fight, survive and win in the hardest day of combat,” said Brig. Gen. Phillip Kiniery, the Army’s Fort Benning-based infantry commandant. “What Infantry Week represents … is a culmination event of five different competitions that show the world, show our Army what our experts can do and build lethality.”
The Army this week held its annual International Best Sniper competition, its Best Mortar Competition and its Lacerda All-Army Combatives Competition. The 42nd annual Lt. Gen. David E. Grange Best Ranger Competition kicked off Friday and will run through Sunday.
This year, Fort Benning officials added a new contest — the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition, pitting seven four-man teams of jumpmaster-qualified paratroopers from across the Army in a test of their technical airborne skills.
The competitions, Kiniery said, bring out the best in the Army’s soldiers and give them an opportunity to showcase their talents and trade knowledge with others from across the service.
“What you’re seeing is soldier grit,” he said. “The five competitions showcase the essential warfighting capabilities that our soldiers need to be lethal, resilient and ready for any threat across the globe.”
An 82nd Airborne Division team competes in the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. The newest competition for the installation’s Infantry Week pitted teams of highly trained paratroopers against each other to test their skills and knowledge of airborne operations. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
An 82nd Airborne Division team competes in the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. The newest competition for the installation’s Infantry Week pitted teams of highly trained paratroopers against each other to test their skills and knowledge of airborne operations. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A jumpmaster team from the 11th Airborne Division carries a helium tank across a drop zone during the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. The newest competition for the installation’s Infantry Week pitted teams of highly trained paratroopers against each other to test their skills and knowledge of airborne operations. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers drop supply boxes from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter marker during the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. The newest competition for the installation’s Infantry Week pitted teams of highly trained paratroopers against each other to test their skills and knowledge of airborne operations. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
An 11th Airborne Division soldier places a drop zone marker during the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. The newest competition for the installation’s Infantry Week pitted teams of highly trained paratroopers against each other to test their skills and knowledge of airborne operations. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Army Master Sgt. Steven Bone watched closely as the CH-47 Chinook helicopter swooped over Fort Benning’s Fryar Drop Zone on Thursday.
Suddenly, a package rigged to a small parachute dropped from the back of the dual-rotor chopper, sending it slowly falling to the ground — eventually striking just feet from the black pickup truck from which Bone was monitoring the airborne operations.
The package missed the truck. And it landed close to the spot the 11th Airborne Division jumpmaster team competing in the inaugural Best Jumpmaster Competition intended.
“Nice,” yelled one of the noncommissioned officers from the unit based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. “Not bad, guys.”
The drop zone test on the second day of the three-day competition was meant to tax the competitors mentally and assess their pathfinder skills, said Capt. Caleb Moreno, a company commander at Fort Benning’s Airborne School.
“There’s a lot of math, a lot of equations that they need to know coming into the competition before actually executing it,” Moreno said. “So, if there’s no pathfinders on the team, it’s going to be a very rough event for these jumpmaster teams.”
The Army’s first new Infantry Week competition since the service launched Best Mortar in 2018, the Best Jumpmaster Competition was designed to test airborne units’ jumpmasters on their technical and tactical proficiencies.
Bone, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the competition, said he and other soldiers who help run the Army’s Airborne and Jumpmaster schools at Fort Benning were inspired about a year ago by the Best Ranger Competition to add a new event focused on the skills their schoolhouse teaches.
“We are specifically testing what makes someone the best jumpmaster,” said Bone, the operations sergeant major for the 1st Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which trains paratroopers and jumpmasters. “So, while there are physical things, jumpmaster is a lot more about technical skills.”
Competitors jumped from helicopters and airplanes, prepared supply loads for airdrops and managed drop zone operations during events spanning the three-day event. But the most important tests are those focused on the safety operations jumpmasters are responsible for during any airborne operations, Bone said.
Fort Benning’s own Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade took home the top prize on Friday.
While the annual contest attracted seven teams from across the Army, Bone said he hopes to see it expand next year.
He also hopes the new competition will inspire more paratroopers to join the jumpmaster ranks — a skill he only begrudgingly acquired after initially shying away from it, he said.
“We’re always going to have to have the capability to drop soldiers behind enemy lines and establish a foothold, so that way we can land additional soldiers after we’ve secured the airfield,” Bone said. “You have to have jumpmasters to do that. They’re the leaders, the ones building confidence in paratroopers to exit out in the air. So, that’s why this competition is important — we have to be able to continue to build up jumpmasters to ensure our airborne capabilities as an Army.”
A U.S. Marine from the Marine Corps Shooting Team fires a sniper rifle during the International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Friday, April 10, 2026. The Marine Corps team took first place in the 34-team event. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A U.S. soldier fires his pistol during the International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on April 10, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Army Rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiment fire rifles during the International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Friday, April 10, 2026. The Ranger team took second place in the 34-team event. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Snipers from across the Army, the Marine Corps, the Navy and about a dozen allied countries sent nearly 700 rounds downrange over the course of the three-day competition, organizers said.
With their carbines, multiple rifles and pistols, they shot targets ranging from about 25 to 1,000 meters away, said Sgt. 1st Class Craig Mordaunt, an Army Sniper Course instructor who helped plan the 2026 event.
With the competition cut from four days to three days this year, Mordaunt said the cadre focused much of the competition around time management, giving the 34 two-man sniper teams shorter timeframes to hit targets than in past years.
“It’s pretty tough. It’s stressful,” said Mordaunt, who has about a decade of sniper experience. “Everyone wants to represent their unit or their country well. It’s difficult, stressful, shooting in front of people — and then we’re also testing their physical and mental capabilities through this.”
U.S. Army teams took second, third and fourth place this year — the 75th Ranger Regiment, 3rd Special Forces Group and Michigan National Guard, respectively. But the Marine Corps Shooting Team took top honors on Friday.
Competitors in the Army’s Best Mortar Competition watch a 60mm round impact downrange at Fort Benning’s Redcloud Ranger on Friday, April 10, 2026, during the final day of the Army’s annual Best Mortar Competition. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers from the 7th Army Training Command shoot a 60mm round in the Army’s Best Mortar Competition at Fort Benning’s Red Cloud Range on Friday, April 10, 2026, during the final day of the Army’s annual Best Mortar Competition. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A 25th Infantry Division team shoots 60mm mortars at Fort Benning’s Red Cloud Range on Friday, April 10, 2026, during the final day of the Army’s annual Best Mortar Competition. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Competitors in the Army’s Best Mortar Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., fire a 120mm mortar from a Stryker armored fighting vehicle on Thursday, April 9, 2026, during the annual contest that is part of the installation’s Infantry Week. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A 25th Infantry Division soldier loads a 120mm mortar inside a Stryker armored fighting vehicle on Thursday, April 9, 2026, during the Army’s annual Best Mortar Competition. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division fire a 120mm mortar inside a Stryker armored fighting vehicle on Thursday, April 9, 2026, during the Army’s annual Best Mortar Competition. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
The 2026 Best Mortar Competition tested 15 four-man mortar teams on both broad infantry and specific mortar skills, including their proficiency on multiple mortar systems.
Over three days the teams fired dozens of rounds from their rifles, machine guns, and 120mm and 60mm mortar systems. Army Capt. Patrick Elsonbast, Fort Benning’s mortar training company leader and the officer in charge of the competition, said the idea was to test the teams on a wide range of mortar skills relevant to them no matter if they were to serve in the Arctic, the jungle, the desert or the forest.
“We wanted Best Mortar this year to really try and transcend all these different types of infantry, and so we didn’t want to make something too difficult, but we wanted to really test them across all different types of platforms and mortar tasks,” Elsonbast said.
The competition tested the teams on their physical fitness, placed them inside Stryker armored combat vehicles to conduct fire missions and checked their abilities to fire from mounted and handheld mortar tubes.
The Vilseck, Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment took first place in the competition on Friday. They beat out the second-place team from the 75th Ranger Regiment, which had won the past three competitions.
“When I look at these mortarmen across the competition, we are definitely testing their physical fitness, we’re definitely testing their small arms fire with machine guns, and we’re definitely testing their fires, because we want them to make a difference on the battlefield,” Elsonbast said. “And I think that’s what ultimately determines the best mortar team.”
While the Army has focused heavily in recent years on implementing drones, robots and other technology into infantry and other formations, the ability to fight hand-to-hand remains essential, said Sgt. 1st Class Nelson Quinones.
That is why the service’s annual Lacerda All-Army Combatives competition only continues to grow year after year. This year’s Lacerda Cup — won by the 101 st Airborne Division — featured some 136 fighters from 21 teams across the service.
“Combatives is the unfortunate reality of war,” said Quinones, the Army’s top noncommissioned officers for its combatives program. “You’re never going to get around it. There will be a time where you will have to go hands on with your enemy, and it’s kill or be killed.”
The annual mixed martial arts-style competition — named for the combatives tournament champion and Army Ranger, Staff Sgt. Pedro Lacerda, who died of a brain aneurysm in 2010 — tests soldiers’ skills and stamina over three days of fights.
The top performers in each weight class for male and female soldiers faced off Friday in full-contact cage fights to earn individual titles.
Quinones, a former competitor in Lacerda, said the competition displays soldiers’ toughness and physical fitness just as much as their ability to strike.
“It’s months of hard work and training,” he said. “When you’re fighting somebody, you’re going through a decision-making process over and over and over, just like you would in a real-life fist fight.
“That translates over into combat, making rapid decisions in a timely manner and defeating the enemy in that decision making process. And, also, it’s just fun. Let’s be real: It’s awesome that our soldiers get to display their talent.”
Army Spc. Jose Paz, right, from the 7th Infantry Division, strikes at Spc. Walter Galope, of the 10th Mountain Division, during an intermediate bout in the service’s annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives tournament at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Maj. Marco Lara, of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, controls the fight from the top during an intermediate bout in the service’s annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives tournament at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Army Sgt. James Palmer, from the 75th Ranger Regiment, top, takes down Pfc. Trey Hill, of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, during the service’s annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives tournament at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Army 1st Lt. Rane Allen, of the 101st Airborne Division, right, and Army Spc. Alex Plant, of the 11th Airborne Division, square off during an intermediate bout of the service’s annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives tournament at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Army 1st Lt. Rane Allen, of the 101st Airborne Division, goes in for a slap during a fight against Army Spc. Alex Plant, of the 11th Airborne Division, in the service’s annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives tournament at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Army Sgt. 1st Class Anais Moise, of the 82nd Airborne Division, takes down an opponent during the service’s annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives tournament at Fort Benning, Ga., on Thursday, April 9, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
