Greetings from the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), our Army’s and our soldiers’ professional organization.The 2nd Annual William J. "Joe" Gainey Cup Best Scout Squad Competition kicked off with 19 scout squads at Fort Benning, Ga., in early May.The three-day competition tested the mental, technical and tactical skills in both individual and team events to determine the Army’s best six-man scout squad.This year’s competition was won by Staff Sgt. Kyle Cooper, Sgt. Casar Cavazos, Spc. Glen Gianello, Spc. Joshua Castro, Pfc. Justin Cope and Pfc. Daniel Casillas, representing the 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany."What we tried to do in the 2015 Gainey Cup was to find the best scout squad in our Army," said Brig. Gen. Scott McKean, 49th chief of armor.Finishing in second place were Staff Sgt. Jesse Vincent, Sgt. Jesus Consuegra, Sgt. Nicholas Hagstrom, Spc. Steven Smith, Spc, Raymond Heenan and Spc. Nathan Nichols, representing the 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.In third place was the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga., squad with squad members 1st Lt. Nathan Schwartzbauer, Pfc. Steven Taylor, Sgt. Robert Montavon, Spc. Robby Paz, Spc. Brandon Whitley and Pfc. Casar DeLeon.All three of these teams dominated the competition, performing consistently well throughout all the events – leaving the final event in the competition to determine the winners.In a snapshot, the competition events included both scout-centric and common skills tasks designed to test the teamwork and leadership of each scout squad in a fast-paced, physically and mentally challenging environment.The scout teams negotiated obstacle courses, demonstrated their lethality in live-fire exercises on the range, performed day and night land navigation courses, conducted both route and area reconnaissance missions, called for artillery fire, executed security operations, and performed operations in a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) battlefield.Command Sgt. Maj. Joe Gainey, the competition’s namesake, was on hand to set the tone for the competition."I asked you Day One to do something simple for me, I asked you to give it your all," Gainey said at the awards ceremony.Gainey added, "You guys have really blown it out of the park." He ended by saying: "Mission Complete," to close out this bi-annual event.Gainey, the first senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a veteran of nearly 33 years of service, experienced a broad range of leadership assignments during his career.Gainey served in Operation Joint Endeavor (IFOR), Operation Joint Guard (SFOR 3) and Operation Joint Forge (SFOR 8) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.He served as the command sergeant major for the Combined Joint Task Force 7 (CJTF-7) and as the command sergeant major of the Multi-National Corps Iraq (MNC-I) in Operation Iraqi Freedom II."Command Sergeant Major Joe Gainey was a scout, but more than that, he was a leader, he was a master of the fundamentals, and he understood the importance of training soldiers to do their missions because he knew that is what would keep soldiers alive in battle, and that’s what would successfully accomplish the mission," said McKean.The Georgia heat at Fort Benning this time of year had an impact on the performance of the teams, especially during the CBRN evaluated areas where the scout teams were required to wear Mission Oriented Protective Posture equipment and a protective mask.The obstacle course and other physically demanding events, like land navigation over longer periods of time, were especially exhausting in the Georgia heat and humidity."The competition was designed with no task comparable to another task, they were all individual, collective scout combat-related skills that either tested physical or mental strength," said Gainey.For all of the scout teams in the competition, training, preparation and building the team were an essential part of their success just to finish the competition.When asked about preparing for this competition, Staff Sgt. Kyle Cooper, squad leader for the winning team said, "We started with basic soldier tasks and worked our way up from there."Cooper said, "Every soldier on this team had their own strengths and their own weaknesses."Adding, "We played to that very well."All three of the top squads identified teamwork and working together like pieces in a machine as an essential part of their preparation and their ultimate success.The final event in the competition was the "Final Charge," which ultimately determined the placement of the top three teams – running within points of each other throughout all the competitive events."Literally, those top three [teams] could have come out any way," said Command Sgt. Maj. James Westover, the brigade command sergeant major for 3rd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment, whose team managed the competition from start to finish.The winning team from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment will retain the rotating Gainey Cup trophy until the next competition in 2017.Included in the 19 competing teams was a scout squad from the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School in Canada.The Canadian team was the only international team to compete in the competition."We’ve been on battlefields together," said Col. John Andrews, commander, Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School, talking about the camaraderie of the competition between his Canadian soldiers and the soldiers from the United States Army."It is amazing that we could come together in a good, spirited, friendly competition," said Andrews.Now more than ever America’s Army needs AUSA and AUSA needs your membership support.Membership is the volume knob to ensure your voice is amplified many times over and heard throughout the halls of Congress, from sea to shining sea across this country, and throughout every small town and community in-between. Keep America’s Army Strong!Take A Stand! Still Serving, Still Saluting!