O’Neill, USMA grad Lexi West looks for title
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — U.S. Army 1st Lt. Lexi West, a 2016 O’Neill High School graduate and 2021 U.S. Military Academy graduate, is slated to compete in the 17th Best Sapper Competition, to be held April 19 through 22 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
West, the daughter of Fort Montgomery’s Mark and Holly West and granddaughter of Highland Falls’ Pat and Gus Fishburne, is part of a two-person team representing the 15th Engineer Battalion, Grafenwöhr, Germany. She and her partner, her West Point classmate Rachel Kicklighter, are scheduled to compete against 49 other teams for the Best Sapper title. They are the only all-female team. There are a total of 50 two-person teams.
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.
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.
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 ruck sack that weighs more than 80 pounds and competing in a variety of events, testing them to their mental and physical breaking point.
Sappers will compete on limited amounts of sleep and will have to complete a series of tasks, including demolition, land navigation, steel cutting, mountaineering, reconnaissance, marksmanship and urban breaching techniques.
The opening ceremony, slated to begin at 5 p.m. CST on April 19, will be livestreamed to www.facebook.com/fortleonardwoodmissouri, as well as the closing ceremony at 10 a.m. CST on April 23, and various events in between.
For more information about the competition, visit the BSC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BestSapper.
