Youngest soldier in Army’s Best Squad wanted to win ‘with the guys to my left and right’

The team of five Rangers was in the final stretch of an 18-mile ruck march when Staff Sgt. Colin Doyle started feeling the cramps.

“Mile 17 and my hamstrings started to lock up,” Doyle said this week. “And the dudes, they’re awesome, right? I check on them, they check on me, and within three seconds of me saying, ‘Oh, my hamstrings are locking up,’ they had Hoists, and I think I had two bananas and an apple in front of me.”

It was a moment that Doyle said defined the week-long competition for the five-man team from Fort Benning, Georgia, in September.

Doyle and his Ranger teammates pressed through the cramps and won the competition, earning the title of the Army’s 2026 Best Squad. The five soldiers from 3rd Ranger Battalion’s A Company beat 11 other squads from major commands in events that included swim and fitness tests, marksmanship and expertise in a wide range of weapons, medical problems, a formal interview board, and several grueling ruck marches, including the 18-mile Norwegian march where Doyle struggled.

“You’re only as strong as your weakest link,” Doyle told Task & Purpose. “At that moment, I was the weakest link.”

Despite his “weak link” self-assessment, Doyle was named the Army’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year for his performance as a leader during the competition, and one of his Rangers, Sgt. Michael Shield, was named the Army’s Soldier of the Year. Shield’s award included a spot promotion to sergeant from corporal, the rank he held during the competition. The other members were Sgt. William Masters, Spc. William Schaeffer, and Spc. Marshall Garren.

From left, Spc. William Schaeffer, Sgt. William Masters, Staff Sgt. Colin Doyle, Cpl. Michael Shield and Spc. Marshall Garren, representing United States Army Special Operations Command at the 2026 Best Squad Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, September 10, 2026. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Hernandez.

All three awards were announced by Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer at this week’s annual conference of the Association of the United States  Army in Washington, D.C.

Doyle joined the Army at 19 after growing up in Abington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, a city reflected in his accent and self-deprecating personality. Rangers have now won three of the last four Best Squad titles, but Doyle’s was the first to include one soldier, Schaeffer, who is so new in the Army that he was not yet “tabbed” as a Ranger School graduate.

Doyle said leading a team with both experienced and brand new soldiers requires different skills. He leaves most of the daily training to Masters and Shield, but stays involved in how new soldiers like Schaeffer adapt to the famously spartan lifestyle that new Rangers typically live. 

“I lean on Sgt. Shield and Sgt. Masters heavily to square that private away and teach him everything he knows about being a Ranger,” Doyle told Task & Purpose. “When I get a new guy, I won’t ask him anything really other than what his life was like growing up. Do you have any debt? What’d you do before the army? All the questions that tell me who are you and who were you and are you good with money? Have you ever lived outside of your home? Stuff like that. Because I want to know who I’m getting and how I can make sure that they can have a good life outside of being a private, because they’re about to go through a 12-month, very challenging period of their life.”

Masters said Doyle set the example for the squad.

“I can’t give Sgt. Doyle enough kudos,” Masters said. “He’s the one who’s put this whole thing together for our squad. He’s the one who’s planned out our training in the time that we have had to prep.”

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Tab or no tab, he said, every member of the team has to be up to speed.

 “I consider Ranger school a leadership course. So, there’s no individual skills that are really not practiced every day,” Masters said. “That said, as a new private, obviously he’s drinking from a fire hose, so it is very intense for him. And it’s meant to be that way. His duty day is a little more hectic, but aside from that, he’s expected to do every Ranger skill there is.”

The tough moments of the competition, he said, brought the team together.

“I feel like I’ll look back when I get older, and I’ll be like, almost missing the ability to just be in that suck, to go through that pain,” he said. “So, just embrace that moment and just love it for what it is. I think a lot of times guys fail to appreciate how tough something is, and I think that’s something that is super special to remember.”

As for the “suck” in the Norwegian march, Masters said, the team began the day at full speed, hoping to demoralize the competition with an early lead. It mostly worked, but at Mile 15, a single soldier from another team passed them.

Army Spc. William Schaeffer at the starting point of the combat water survival relay race at Victory Pond during the 2026 U.S. Army Best Squad Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, Sept. 16, 2026. Army photo by Spc. Jordan Bristol.

The fast soldier meant nothing for the competition, since teams score points only when their entire team finishes.

But as a point of pride, the team knew they had one member who could almost certainly catch and beat the other soldier as the overall top finisher

That was Schaeffer.

Tab or no tab, Masters and Doyle both said, Schaeffer is the team’s ruck march superstar. In individually timed 12-mile ruck marches, he regularly finishes 10 to 15 minutes ahead of the rest of the team.

“He was foaming at the mouth,” said Doyle.

“He was still green, good to go,” added Masters. “We gave him the opportunity. We’re like, ‘hey, man, if you just want to burn it down and get in there and get a good time, you’re free to go.”

But despite “being the youngest dude in the squad,” Masters said Schaeffer wanted to “finish it out with the guys to my left and right. 

And with that, Doyle told the squad, “We’re going to run to the finish.” 

So, he set the pace, and the Rangers finished together.

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