Nine teams, composed of Marines from the Logistics Support Group on Camp Barrett aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, competed against each other in a squad competition April 10, 2014.

The noncommissioned officers who were in charge of the platoons decided how and when their Marines were going to train during the days that led to the competition.

“The purpose of this is event is to challenge NCOs, empower them and to have the opportunity to train their Marines to a standard and evaluate them on how they do,” said Capt. Morgan McQuiston, logistics operations officer at The Basic School.

The platoons were unit specific, and were challenged in areas that aren’t part of their day-to-day routine, but every Marine should be familiar with.

McQuiston said the Marines were evaluated on marksmanship, Marine Corps martial arts, weapons knowledge, effectively using a gas mask, basic radio function, combat lifesaving, combat orders, call for fire, basic Marine Corps knowledge and a memory game after stress. They also practiced land navigation from station to station.

The competition was timed, and each time a Marine answered a common knowledge question wrong, or didn’t know how to perform the task that was given, minutes were added to their final time.

“Incentives are great,” said Sgt. Timmion Banton, automotive maintenance technician at The Basic School. “We’ve got a 96 reason to win right now.”

The armory platoon came in first place and won four days off work; operations platoon came in second place and won three days off work; motor transport operations platoon came in third place and won a half day off work; and communications platoon came in last place and are responsible for the next working party. All platoons were from Logistics Support Group on TBS.

Correspondent: sarah.a.garcia@usmc.mil