Greetings from the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), our Army’s and our soldiers’ professional organization.I recently had the honor to attend the Sullivan Cup Competition at Fort Benning, Ga.Named in honor of Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA, Ret., our 32nd Army chief of staff and AUSA president, the competition tested 17 world-class tank crews during the week of May 11-15.This year marked the second year of this competition that began in 2012, and is held every two years.The purpose of the Sullivan Cup Competition is to promote "Excellence in Armor" throughout all our armored forces.The competing crews represented 14 units from the United States Army, one crew from the United States Marine Corps and two crews from the Royal Canadian Army.The tank crews from the Army represented all six heavy divisions and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment from the active component, and four crews from the heavy brigades of the Army National Guard.At the end of the week the crew from the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were victorious in winning the coveted Sullivan Cup. (See related story, Page 10)The competition focused on four key areas: leadership, physical fitness, tactical proficiency and gunnery.Collectively, the competition challenged these tank crews on events such as land navigation, casualty evacuation, individual weapon marksmanship, preparing and executing tactical operations and responding to changes of mission.Some of the key physical events included changing a section of tank track.This was a timed event that required the crew to break track, remove a section of the track that was damaged and replace the section with a new piece of track.While the event as written here in this article sounds very simple, doing track maintenance on a 70-ton vehicle is physically very demanding.This event demands a well-coordinated and highly trained crew of soldiers who can function together as a single entity to quickly and precisely move the vehicle, operate the tools and equipment provided and successfully restore mobility to the vehicle for the next mission.This year the tank crews were challenged with the Armor Crewman’s Physical Fitness Test (ACPFT) that was originally established in the 1970s during the Cold War.The ACPFT was intended to test those critical performance tasks that were physically demanding and essential to successful combat operations when preparing to fight a numerically superior Cold War opponent at a 3- or 4-to-1 ratio.The ACPFT events during this competition included transferring main gun tank ammunition, moving track sections, and evacuating a casualty; all executed over a lengthy course.While the Cold War is long over, the events clearly challenged the fitness of the crews, placing a physical emphasis on those career-specific tasks that would be essential for victory on a future battlefield.The highlight of the competition for both the tank crews and the spectators, who flocked to Fort Benning’s Digital Multi-Purpose Range Complex in the northeast section of the installation, was the tank gunnery engagements.Tank gun accuracy and speed of engagement on the gunnery range for individual tank crew and platoon qualifications has always been a yardstick to measure training competency and proficiency for the crews and the organization’s training programs.For the tank gunnery phase of the Sullivan Cup Competition, individual tank crew competency and accuracy on the gunnery range with all tank-mounted weapons is the capstone event of the competition.Watching this year’s competition was reminiscent of the Canadian Cup Competition that was run in Germany during the Cold War.The Canadian Cup Competition was started in 1963 when the Canadian Army hosted a tank platoon level competition at the German Bergen-Hohen Training Area in Northern Germany.This event started as a friendly competition that promoted camaraderie and esprit-de-corps among partnered nations serving in Europe.American, Belgium, German, British, Canadian and other tank crews had the opportunity to showcase their tank systems, their training, their lethality, and their spirit both on and off the gunnery range and throughout the competition.Over the years the competition evolved and became more competitive for those platoons selected to participate.The one great advantage gained from those platoons that competed was the subject matter experts the Army developed from those crews who understood the science of tank gun theory and the ways to improve the accuracy of our tank systems for future generations.This year’s Sullivan Cup Competition was just as rewarding and beneficial to the tank crews who competed and to their respective armies, services and organizations.On the gunnery range tank crews were assigned either an M1A1 or M1A2 tank based on the Abrams variant used in their home organizations.The greatest advantage over those crews firing from the M1A2 is the Commander’s Independent Thermal Viewer (CITV), which provides the crew with a second thermal sight and the ability to observe a greater battle-space.With both offensive and defensive scenarios, all of the tank crews were presented a variety of target engagements from their tank gunnery manual.All of these engagements incorporated multiple targets that included stationary and moving tanks, personnel carriers, trucks and troop targets.This wide variety of targets would require the tank crews to employ all of their tank’s weapons and ammunition types for the 120mm tank cannon, the commander’s 50-caliber machinegun, and the 7.62mm coaxially mounted and the 7.62mm loader’s machineguns.Further, the crews were challenged with degradations to their tank system or crew that would require them to fight the tank using what is known as degraded mode gunnery procedures.One of these degraded scenarios was the three-man crew engagement where the tank commander had to perform his and the gunner’s duties to engage a stationary and moving tank while on the move.Once referred to as the widow-maker, this offensive three-man crew engagement requires a well-trained driver and loader who can perform with minimal commands from the tank commander to allow him to acquire, employ and engage the stationary tank first within 10 seconds before shifting the weapon system to the moving tank.Another challenging engagement was the nuclear, biological and chemical engagement where the tank crew was required to don their protective masks and fight outnumbered against widely dispersed multiple stationary and moving targets while on the move.After the first three days of the competition, the top four tank crews competed in a "shoot-off" that incorporated non-standard engagements and extended ranges.Once again, out-numbered scenarios incorporating a variety of target types at extended ranges required these top four tank crews to employ all of the tank’s weapon systems.The competition was a huge success and we can all be very proud of the performance of our top armor crewmen.More than ever we can be proud of the emphasis and expertise this training is developing and placing back in our armored formations after more than 12 years of counter-insurgency focused combat.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!