Marschoracy, laying down weapons with your eyes covered, preparing camp for the night, and even writing... a song. Two-day utility and combat competitions of military college listeners were held at the Academy of Land Forces in Wrocław. 8 six-member teams from Polish and abroad military universities joined the Six Men Army.
In addition to host teams, teams from the Naval Academy, the Military Academy, the Academy of Justice and 3 abroad teams from the Czech Republic and Lithuania, and a representation of cadets from the AWL as part of the Erasmus programme (two cadets from the Canadian Army, 2 from the American Army, and 1 from the Army of the North Republic of Macedonia and Luxembourg). On the starting line, he wished all the players the weapon gene. Dr. Marek Tomaszycki, Rector of AWL. “Good teamwork is simply a warrant of success for the teams,” said the rector addressing the players just before they went on tour. And there were many challenges waiting for them.
Route without reduced fare
The first very exhausting competition was long-distance transport of the injured. The players had to transport 2 teammates and their dense equipment to the medical point. To make it not besides easy to be announced contamination alarm and evacuation must have been carried out utilizing gas masks.
The seemingly easy task was to assemble Beryl rifles on time, but... erstwhile you gotta combine all the elements of the weapon with your eyes covered, the action becomes much more difficult. And here the weight of the gold was good cooperation of the squad members, due to the fact that erstwhile 1 of the soldiers was handing over a weapon, the another could aid him, telling him what to do. Each squad tried to fit in little than 2 minutes to not receive punishment points.
Interesting, due to the fact that the uncommon form of competition was to communicate with each another with the semaphore alphabet utilizing flags. First, the squad members had to decrypt the word written in Morse code, and erstwhile they did, they had to give it to the colleagues waiting 100 metres distant utilizing the semaphore alphabet. Is specified an archaic way of communicating information inactive in use? Turns out it is. – We have very modern forms of communication, but very many of our soldiers know Morse code, and many commanders even require specified a cognition – admits cadet Steven Claghorn.
A U.S. Army Petty Officer, a listener of the 3rd year of military university from North Georgia, estimated during the struggles that the Six Men Army competitions organized by Polish colleagues are very demanding and, most importantly, force the squad to join the group.
After the competitions played at the university, the teams got maps and went into the field. During the march on the sub-Wroc3aw Cancer Camp, the teams had to check in at 5 checkpoints. There they received further guidelines, e.g. they were expected to decision dense boxes of ammunition or arrange a song during the march with a certain number of words. Upon arriving at the camp, the podors were to prepare for their squad a hidden and well-masked camp. They then received further tasks, specified as building a mast in their own campground or lighting a fire and boiling water on it.
After spending the night in the camps, the teams returned to the AWL area where the finish line was located. However, exceeding it did not end the rivalry, and the additional competition was shooting with a pneumatic weapon – says Capr. Kacper Pawa, co-organizer of the competition.
Bottom-up initiative
The best squad of global competitions was the squad of the Academy of Land Forces and it was hers that was presented the trophy of the Rector of the academy. The second place was taken by the WAT squad and the 3rd place was taken by an global squad of cadets studying in the AWL under the Erasmus programme. In the shooting, military students from WAT proved the best aim.
Organizing the “six-man army” competitions is an initiative of sub-students of the Academy of Land Forces. In 2021, the thought of organising them was put forward by the then president of the student government of AWL Sgt. pochor. Radosław Turczyński. In the first 2 editions only soldiers of various companies and AWL years competed. The 3rd edition was national and teams from another military colleges volunteered to compete. This year's event was already international. – Now we can say that the goal of the competition is not only national integration, but besides the global audience of military universities – says Sgt. Michał Strukowski, current president of the AWL Student Council. Importantly, this integration is not only active, but besides a test of the cooperation skills of future officers from the country and the allied army.
