 Mortar men have one job, hanging around. Hearing cannons go off in the distance, and you hear that distinctive sound, feeling the compression of your chest. Every time a round leaves that cannon, we're doing our job. We're both airborne. They're technically, we call them legs. Meet Team Echo from the 82nd Airborne Division. I'm Corporal Alec Norton. Corporal Jacob Nolan. I'm Staff Sergeant James Pennington. And I'm Sergeant Ryan Mosser. We got up at 4.30 a.m. and then we were down for the PT test or the Army new PT test at about 5.15. It was incredibly difficult, especially waking up and doing it in uniform and then just, I mean, at 4, 5, 5 o'clock in the morning, that is extremely demanding. I thought it was going to be fun and then I started getting into it and I'm like, this is extremely difficult. But you just got to keep the motivation going. We know our jobs. We do them every day. But to come down here and compete in the best mortar competition, it really shows not only ourselves, improves to ourselves, but it shows to the other units that we have bragged no overdoing. Their road to becoming the Army's best mortar team isn't going to be easy. It will take every ounce of skill and determination to surpass their toughest competitors. The 75th Ranger Regiment was definitely a team that we were prepared to go up against, which they proved to be right up there with us. I don't think it's so much beating the 75th Ranger Regiment. It was just beating every single competitor that came up here. The 75th Ranger Regiment typically gets more funding and more training than some of the other units that we're competing against. I just think it just goes to show that we're capable of beating any team that comes in. Everyone can do their job when the situation is easy. But when we're out here and we're getting smoked, we're getting these obstacle courses and we're running around and we're tired and we're running out of most sleep, that's when it shows who really knows how to do their job confidently and who can succeed here. I think it's a pretty good mix between physical and technical, and that's why you just kind of kind of cater to each other's strengths. Like for instance on this last one we were laying in this section when we saw our master knew how to use the M2 aiming circle better than everybody else. We built a gun line. So just knowing your team and how to manipulate them is an option when you're wet. Just because we know our strength and weaknesses, we keep each other laughing all the time so that we're always staying focused, staying happy, keeping motivated, and just picking each other up. That's how we treat our platoon. Back to the family. Not going to be around the bush. Feels pretty good. It's nice to walk around. Mortars is such a small community. See guys they've either competed with, they've heard about this competition and they recognize you or know you for doing your job so successfully that you can win. By those younger guys being able to look up to us as leaders and say, okay, so they're not just teaching me useless things. These are trackers that are very useful to my job, very useful to winning. It was a very humbling moment. You know, you put it all on the line and left all you have and then you come out on top doing it with this group of guys who couldn't be any better. And representing the 82nd makes it just that much better. Very proud to bring it back home and keep leading from the front and that's the best way you can lead. That's what we're going to continue to do.