Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"April 26, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
April
26, 2002
Compiled by Jim Fox
Staff Writer
The Sandhurst Competition is named for West Point’s primary rival in the competition, Great Britain’s Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, England.
West Point cadets will square off against RMA-Sandhurst cadets Saturday for the 35th annual competition. Twelve additional teams will strive for top honors this year.
But while the Sandhurst competition brings to mind West Point cadets racing against their counterparts from Great Britain, the competition was not always organized the way it is today.
In 1967, RMA-Sandhurst presented the U.S. Military Academy with a British officer’s sword that would serve as the trophy in a competition designed to promote military excellence in the U.S. Corps of Cadets. The original purpose of the competition then, as today, was "to provide the Corps of Cadets with a challenging and rewarding inter-company military-skills competition which [would] enhance leadership qualities, professional development and military excellence in selected soldier skills," according to USCC Circular 350-19, "The Sandhurst Competition."
The Sandhurst Trophy, as the sword has come to be known, is presented to the USCC regiment with the highest aggregate of company scores.
Between 1967 and 1975, the competition’s criteria were similar to those for the current Superintendent’s Award: corps squad participation, intramurals, physical fitness tests, drill and ceremonies and cadet brigade company evaluations.
In 1975, then-Commandant Brig. Gen. Philip R. Feir and the British exchange officer of the day, Maj. Robin Hodges, studied the criteria and determined that they were inappropriate. They felt that the criteria fell short of the original intent of the award, which was to increase "military excellence in the field." Feir and Hodges recommended that the format be changed significantly to test the cadets’ ability to "shoot, move and communicate," stressing teamwork among the classes as a fundamental and essential element in the competition. They recommended that a competition be set up to be conducted in the spring during drill and intramural time. The competition would include equipment inspection, communications, weapon handling, swift movement, shooting and land navigation.
Each of the then-36 companies that made up the Corps of Cadets then provided five four-man patrols and one alternate patrol, with all four classes represented in each patrol. More than 850 cadets -- about 20 percent of the Corps at the time -- competed each year. The competition was conducted at Camp Buckner during 20 weekdays in April.
The logistical problems of the program led to calls for it to move to summer training, and so, in 1981, the academy conducted a major placement study to look at that possibility. The study concluded that the advantages of the competition outweighed the disadvantages, and that the competition should take place at West Point. In 1982, the academy conducted the competition in two phases, again in April, in roughly the same format.
The competition changed to a one-day format in 1986, and the organizers moved the marksmanship portion to an outdoor range. In 1988, company-team composition changed from five four-person patrols to two nine-cadet teams -- including one female -- per company.
Since 1992, one team of nine cadets from each company has competed with varying numbers of ROTC teams. Since 1993, two RMA-Sandhurst teams have competed each year, and Canada started sending a team from its Royal Military College in 1997.
The Reginald E. Johnson Plaque is awarded to the highest-scoring team in the competition each year. The plaque is a memorial to a USMA cadet who died while taking part in the land-navigation phase of the 1980 competition.
The original plaque was replaced in 1999 with a mounted cadet saber.