Written by Maj. Brandon Bissell
5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Public Affairs
Fort Campbell, KY – For the first time in its history two joint teams, consisting of soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and Jordanian Special Operations Forces, competed in the 3rd Annual Best Warrior Competition at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Center, Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan, May 8th-12th.
Despite having less than two weeks to train and prepare for the contest the two joint teams, made up of four U.S. Special Forces and three Jordanian SOF soldiers each, finished sixth and twelfth overall out of 22 teams that entered the 4-day competition.
The event has grown quickly in size and scope since its inception in 2009, when just three Jordanian teams competed. This year the 22 teams represented 10 different countries, including Austria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Brunei, Lebanon, Australia, Afghanistan, Tanzania, the United States, and the host country, Jordan.
Teams completed six events that incorporated climbing, rappelling, precision shooting, breaching, and overcoming obstacles under stressful conditions. The culminating event, called the King’s Challenge, isolated aspects from the technical skills of all the previous events into stations spread across a difficult 10 km relay race through mountainous terrain.
The last day of the competition placed 44 individual competitors through a series of four events which tested their rifle, pistol and shotgun skills, as well as a final obstacle course.
Individual 5th SFG (A) Soldiers performed well on the last day with one team member placing second in the steel plate challenge and third place overall; a second team member placing third in the steel plate challenge and fourth place overall; and a third team member placing second in the rifle run event and thirteenth place overall.
“Overall the Best Warrior Competition was an excellent opportunity to showcase USSF’s ability to fight and compete alongside its partner forces, in this case the Jordanian Special Operations Forces,” said a Special Forces team leader. “We were able to forge partnerships and exhibit excellent teamwork, despite language and cultural barriers, while competing against some of the world’s finest Special Operations soldiers.”
USSF Soldiers were in Jordan as part of a Joint Combined Exchange Training exercise, or JCET, with Jordanian forces. These types of exercises are designed to provide training opportunities for American Special Forces in countries that the forces may one day have to operate in, as well as providing training opportunities for the armed forces of the host country.
