One by one, boot by bloodied boot, soldiers trooped across the finish line: body heat escaping their sweat-drenched clothing in the form of steam against the cold of an early spring morning.
Some were slumping over from the sheer weight of their rucksacks; most were grimacing from the pain of the 10-mile forced march through a combination of asphalt, grass, gravel and sand. And all of them were silent in personal tribute that the ordeal was at long last over. All of them save one; and that one, well, she sang!
“And the warden sang, come on somebody, why don’t you run …”
Meet Army Spc. Kayla Bundy.
Bundy, a wheeled vehicle mechanic with the Army Reserve’s 1st Battalion, 414th Infantry Regiment, 95th Training Division, may have been the unlikeliest of warriors at this year’s 108th Training Command Best Warrior competition at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, March 20-25.
Small Stature, Big Voice
Standing a whopping 5 feet tall, she tangled with soldiers and drill sergeants twice her size and three times her experience. But her size didn’t seem to slow her much as she bellowed out country singer Blake Shelton’s “Ol’ Red” over and over and over again.
“If I’m trying to burn some time and clear my head, I definitely want to sing and listen to some country music,” Bundy said. “There was a lot of time to burn on that march!”
Bundy failed to meet the required time of three hours for the forced march, but she didn’t give up.
“There was a pickup spot and I was asked if I wanted to get in the van, but crap, I was just a mile and a half out so I might as well just finish,” she said.
Out of 35 competitors, only three finished the course within the allotted 3 hours.
Bundy, who today feels as though she made a life-changing decision by joining the Army Reserve in 2012, was competing for the first time in a competition she was not even really supposed to be in.
“I just found out ten days ago that I was supposed to be here so I didn’t really have much time to train up,” she said. “We had some other soldiers who were supposed to be here but some didn’t get orders and some just didn’t show up. So, here I am!”
Despite the short notice, Bundy was determined. “I want to win. I’m planning on winning,” she said.
And win she did.
Bundy placed first in the junior enlisted competition and will advance to the Army Reserve-level competition at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, May 2-6.
If you happen to be out there on the trails, give a listen. You may just be able to hear her singing her way to victory yet again: “Get my lantern, get my gun, Red’ll have you treed before the mornin’ comes."