Not content with the reputation of being the premier Special Operations light infantry unit in the U.S. military – and arguably in the world – the 75^th Ranger Regiment keeps winning competitions to erase any cloud of doubt about its capabilities.

Recently, the Army held its annual Ammunition Transfer Holding Point (ATHP) Team of the Year competition. The event took place in Fort Pickett, Virginia, and lasted for a week.

The 75^th Ranger Regiment was represented by a five-man team: Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joseph Giron, an ammunition warrant officer, Sergeant 1st Class Darryl Skelley, an ammunition specialist, Sergeant Luis Heredia, a motor transport operator, Sergeant Michael DeBord, an automated logistical specialist, and Specialist James Maus, an infantryman.

“What made us successful was that in the Rangers we are a team,” said CWO 2 Giron. “We had different skills but because of teamwork, made it happen.”

The competitors were tested on the following tasks: Army Combat Fitness Test, land navigation (day and night), occupying and defending an ATHP, marksmanship, laying, managing, and preparing ammunition for transport, and receiving and transferring ammunition.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Pennie S. Temmerman, the military deputy of the Munitions & Logistics Readiness Center in Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, said “while you compete one goal is you learn from each other and build confidence in your ability to handle tough, unexpected situations as an agile team.  Friendly competition shows the ammunition enterprise and the ordnance community will do our part to ensure that America’s Army is ready, lethal and prepared to destroy its enemies now and in the future, in any domain anytime, anywhere.”

Aside from the aim to see what units possess the best ATHP team, the competition intends to bring together the prime ATHP teams from across the Army in order to evaluate current Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) and revise and improve them as necessary. In that, the 75^th Ranger Regiment has a great role – and responsibility – given its uncommonly high operational tempo. With the vast amount of experience that has been laboriously earned overseas, Rangers are better qualified to pass along to their conventional brethren operational tips – much like Delta Force has been doing for the rest of the Special Operations community and military in general since its inception in the 1980s.

“Without the ammunition professionals in the United States Army, we have no ability to do large-scale combat operations to fight and win the nation’s wars,” said Col. Joseph M. Colacicco, the assistant commandant and chief of staff of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. “The combat arms without ammunition a rifle is just a club…a tank is just a moving bunker…artillery pieces are just something that holds the ground down. It what you guys to do that makes the Army operate and do its mission. Without that, we cannot get anywhere.”