Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, wound down their summer surge Thursday by participating in Pioneer Banner Day.
Six companies in the battalion competed against each other for bragging rights in a day of sporting events and activities.
Jody Miller instituted Banner Day last year when he took command of 2nd Battalion.
Among the events, which started at about 6 a.m., were a bike race, flicker ball tournament, 1,000-meter swim relay, volleyball tournament, dizzy-bat race, tug-of-war and chariot race. A point system was assigned for each event and each company was required to have all its members participate in at least one event.
“It definitely tested the conditioning and skill set of every company,” said Jason Cumiford, commander of D Company.
D Company, which won last year’s Banner Day, finished in first place with 130 points while B and C companies tied for second with 100 points and A Company finished third with 90 points. D Company, which is in charge of the U.S. Army Combatives School, won five of the events outright.
“They’re very passionate about everything they do here,” said Cumiford, who took command of D Company in August. “Since we are a smaller company … we had some individuals run four or five events.”
The chariot race was among the most popular of the events as each company commander had to mount a chariot, required to have four wheels, built by the Soldiers within their company.
Two companies used vehicles, which were tugged by Soldiers or a tracked robotic vehicle (with Soldiers pushing from the rear), while the other companies made the best with what they had. D Company used two bikes to drag Cumiford behind them in a skedco, a stretcher medics use to carry wounded Soldiers from the battlefield.
“It was kind of a last minute thing,” Cumiford said. “It was a lot of ingenuity and forward thinking … to come up with a comical chariot.”
Miller said the summer is among the busiest times of the year for 2nd Battalion and he intended for the Banner Day to unite the Soldiers and create camaraderie.
“You have six companies that do completely different things and we hardly see each other,” Miller said. “This helps build a team.”
