FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — The 75th Ranger Regiment team out of Fort Benning, Georgia, proved they are the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment’s Best Mappers by beating out eight other teams from around the world, during the 2025 competition held at Fort Leonard Wood March 28 through 31.
The winning duo, comprised of Staff Sgt. James Bryson, a senior geospatial engineer noncommissioned officer, and Sgt. Warren Watkins, who currently serves in the Target Platoon of the 75th’s Military Intelligence Battalion, were announced March 31 at the John B. Mahaffey Museum Complex.
No strangers to Fort Leonard Wood, both Bryson and Watkins began their Army careers by attending one station unit training with the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence.
Watkins said he was excited to come back to Fort Leonard Wood to compete in this year’s Best Mapper Competition because “competing is a phenomenal way to test your technical and physical proficiency against other great geospatial engineers across the Army and partnering nations’ militaries.”
Soldiers from across the Army competed, as well as two British Royal Engineer teams and one German Armed Forces team.
“It’s important to widen your aperture and see how you compare against other professionals in your field,” Watkins said. “I also don’t get to network and socialize with many other 12Y geospatial engineers, so coming to compete allowed me to network with other units who we may need to collaborate with in the future.”
According to Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jason Davis, senior geospatial integrator for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Proponent Office - Geospatial, warfighters trained in the 12Y military occupational specialty are part of what he called a “very technical MOS,” responsible for generating, managing, analyzing and disseminating geospatial data and products.
During the competition nine teams of two, were judged on their ability to perform time-constrained mental challenges to test their geospatial and communication skills, along with tasks, such as land navigation, an obstacle course and ruck march.
Bryson said he was “pleasantly” surprised by the community support he and fellow competitors received during the competition, and it reminded him just how important his MOS is to the Army.
“I wasn’t aware of how many people truly cared about this competition. The attendance was astounding,” Bryson said. “We may not be the flashiest MOS, but our terrain analysis, understanding and briefing help visualize the area of operations for commanders to make necessary decisions during war.”
Watkins agreed.
“Having all the observers cheer us on was exciting and humbling,” Watkins said.
Along with bragging rights, the team won the Best Mapper guidon to proudly display at Fort Benning for the next year.
Placing second in the competition were British Royal Engineers Cpl. Joseph Kane and Lance Cpl. Watson Peel.
Third place went to Sgts. Henry Tovar and Shaden Gregory, with the 517th Geospatial Planning Cell in Vicenza, Italy.
More photos from the competition can be viewed on Fort Leonard Wood’s Flickr page.
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