Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Descendant of Hwarang brightened ‘Sandhurst Competition’

Army cadets took the 13th place in the overall competition and won the silver medal in the comprehensive combat skill area, among 60 teams in 2016 Sandhurst competition, following last year’s good ranking.

This year marked the 50th Sandhurst Competition, starting with the physical fitness test and combat skill contest for the U.S. military academy in 1967, and this has become a worldwide combat skill contest for officer candidates after being expanded to an international competition in 1994. Squads for each participating country, including one female soldier out of 9, compete based on combat ability in a competition consisting of an evaluation of physical strength of combat, first aid in a tactical situation, squad combat firing, map reading, throwing a hand grenade, special missions, etc.

Our army cadets came in 12th out of 59 countries in the overall ranking when they participated in the competition for the second time last year, and this year they are also achieving good scores similar to last year despite of their short experience.

For this competition, the military academy has selected 13 participating athletes including 4th grade cadet Heo Chung-beom through the self-competition, Hwarang combat skill competition, from last December. In addition to combat skill training and physical training, they had also winter field training at the Marine Corps, special forces, KCTC(Korea Combat Training Center), commando regiment, combined division, and more.

Lieutenant Colonel Park Sang-joong, the head of the military drill department of the military academy who led the participating team, said, “I was greatly touched to see our Army cadets, the descendants of Hwarang, competing well with the other 60 national teams from 12 countries. By working as a team leader for the second time, I was able to reaffirm that a strong military department is the heart of modern Hwarang.”

By Seok-Jong, Lee < seokjong@dema.mil.kr >
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