Lieutenant General Robert B. Flowers Best Sapper Competition, will begin off-post in the Roubidoux Park April 19th

Once again this year, one of the spring’s premier local events, the Lieutenant General Robert B. Flowers Best Sapper Competition, will begin off-post in the Roubidoux Park in Downtown Waynesville. The competition will kick off at 5 p.m., April 19th, with an opening ceremony that will feature competitors being dropped off from Blackhawk helicopters in the park and non-standard physical fitness test events. The ceremony will be free and open to the public. Throughout the competition, fifty-two-person teams will travel more than 60 miles in 58 hours, throughout the wooded and hilly Ozarks, while carrying a rucksack that weighs more than 80 pounds and competing in a variety of events, testing them to their mental and physical breaking point. Soldiers will compete on limited amounts of sleep and will have to complete a series of tasks, including demolition, land navigation, steel cutting, mountaineering, a wire obstacle breach, marksmanship, timber cutting techniques, bridge reconnaissance, and utilizing handheld mine detectors. 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. Among other skills, today’s Sappers breach fortifications, place and remove landmines, work with explosives, and install portable bridges