Top Guns

MAVERICK. ICEMAN. VIPER. ROOSTER. The call signs resonate with everyone who just loves — and who doesn’t? — the Tom Cruise blockbusters Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick.

Digital Version

Four Tennessee Army National Guard armor soldiers went full Hollywood and backed it up in early May by earning the distinction of the best tank crew in the U.S. Army — perhaps the entire world. They adopted those nicknames before winning the prestigious Sullivan Cup tank competition at Fort Moore, formerly Fort Benning, Georgia.

They are now the tank world’s 2024 top guns, the best of the best, after topping a field of 11 highly skilled M1A2 Abrams tank crews — including six active-duty U.S. Army teams and four from allied nations — during more than a week of intense, sometimes nail-biting competition. Think of it as winning the Olympic gold for troops who maneuver and shoot 70-ton main battle tanks.

The team from the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment’s Troop B, 1st Squadron in Ashland City, Tennessee, which is northwest of Nashville, was the only Guard crew to roll out for the sixth Sullivan Cup competition. It has been held every even-numbered year beginning in 2012, except during the COVID crisis in 2020.

“If we want to be the best, we’ve got to look like the best, which means we’ve got to have cool names,” says Staff Sgt. David Riddick, the team’s tank commander. He was Iceman. The gunner, Sgt. Joshua Owen, was Maverick. The loader, Spc. Noah Eddings, and the driver, recently promoted Sgt. Seth Carter, were Rooster and Viper, respectively.

And like an Olympic athlete who may only get one chance to win the ultimate competition in their endeavor, Riddick wanted it bad. “If I ever wanted to win anything in my life, this is it right here,” he says. “It means everything to bring this trophy back to Tennessee, as we showcased our combat skills and mettle.”

The crew are all traditional Guardsmen. Each is in their 20s with a civilian job, which means they bring more than their military training to the team.

Riddick, the oldest at 29, is a tank instructor at the Army Guard’s Warrior Training Center at Fort Moore. He is also a 2022 law-school graduate. Owen, the gunner, is a Bradley mechanic at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Carter, the driver, has been an information-technology data technician for about a year. And Eddings, the loader, is studying video-game design and development and works as a server at a milkshake bar.

Excelling at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore required beating top teams fielded by the 1st Infantry Division, the runner up, and the 1st Armored Division, which took third, Riddick says. Four other active-Army teams that, presumably, have a lot more time to hone their collective tank skills than traditional Guard soldiers were also in the hunt.

“We were definitely mostly worried about the 1st Armored and 1st Infantry teams,” Riddick adds. “They were both very well-prepared, and they both really wanted to win it. After meeting them, I said to my team, ‘Boys, this competition ain’t gonna be no gimmee.’ ”

There was also a separate M2 Bradley fighting vehicle competition, won by a crew from the 1st Cavalry Division. All told, 62 soldiers, including four women, made up the four-member tank teams and three-person M2 Bradley teams. The contests were part of Armor Week, which was part competition and part celebration of all things armor, hosted by the U.S. Army Armor School. Many events were open to the public.

“This is an amazing honor, and these soldiers should be proud of all they have accomplished,” said Maj. Gen. Warner Ross, the adjutant general of Tennessee, in a May press release. “They competed against the best crews in the world and showed everyone Tennessee’s warrior spirit and what it means to be from the Volunteer State.”

The pride was even more intense in Ashland City, where the crew returned to their unit as heroes. “Everybody was freaking out,” Riddick said. “You did it! The Guard did it! Tennessee did it!”

The Sullivan Cup pays homage to retired Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, who served as an armor officer and commanded various armor formations during his 36 years of uniformed service. Sullivan retired July 31, 1995, as Army chief of staff. He then spent 18 years as president of the Association of the United States Army. This was the first competition since he passed away earlier this year.

This is the second time a Guard outfit has won the tank competition. North Carolina’s C Company, 1st Battalion, 252nd Armor Regiment, part of the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, won the crown in 2016.

It means everything to bring this trophy back to Tennessee, as we showcased our combat skills and mettle.

—Staff Sgt. David "Iceman" Riddick of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment

RIDDICK SPENT A YEAR preparing for the event. He says he and his crew were offered the opportunity to compete after their tank shot the best in the entire 278th during the regiment’s annual qualification tables.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Of course I’m going to take it,” says Riddick, an 11-year Guard veteran who holds the Army’s prestigious Master Gunner badge. It was also a no-brainer for Carter. “I just thought it would be great to represent the Guard in such a big event,” he says.

The competition was multifaceted. Much of the scoring was devoted to each crew’s ability to maneuver their behemoth machine and engage targets with their .50-caliber and 7.62mm machineguns and acquire targets, load and fire the high-velocity, 120mm main gun.

But being a tanker requires more, and each competitor faced tests of fitness and endurance, knowledge of Army armor doctrine and 19-Kilo military-occupational-specialty skill levels, first aid and maintenance savvy, to include replacing sections of the track.

The four Tennessee team members did have advantages. They got to train hard for the Sullivan Cup for two months at the range where they would have to prove their mettle. They lucked out, Riddick acknowledges, by drawing a relatively new tank from the 316th Cavalry Brigade at Fort Moore. Riddick had a good handle on what they should study and what they need not worry about. And they also have a good team with great chemistry, which is critical for a tank crew, he says.

“To operate as a tank crew, you can’t do it individually,” Riddick explains. “Everybody has to understand what they’re doing, when they’re going to do it and how they’re going to do it in order to operate effectively and maximize the potential of that platform. If you’ve got one person who doesn’t know what they’re doing, that can mess up your entire gunnery.

“And that’s the reason we won,” he adds, “because we did so well in the gunnery.”

Riddick says the crew “was almost flawless” on Tank Table 6, which includes multiple days and nights of maneuvering and engaging targets from 400 to 2,500 meters. “It was one of those few times in life when it felt perfect,” he says. “There were a lot of moving parts, and when everything goes the way it’s supposed to, it’s awesome.”

It also accounted for 40% of the overall score, and no crew at the Sullivan Cup outshot the Guardsmen from Ashland City.

Our gunner and TC just smoked it. And our loader was slinging the antitank rounds as fast as I think anybody could.

—Sgt. Seth "Viper" Carter of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment

“Tank Table 6 was the turning point,” says Carter, the driver. “The scoring for the gunnery tables involves a lot of fire commands between the gunner, the loader and the tank commander. It has to be as fluid as you can possibly imagine. Our gunner and TC just smoked it. And our loader was slinging the [60-pound] antitank rounds as fast as I think anybody could.”

The Sullivan Cup was also an opportunity to get to know other top tank crews from across the U.S. Army and Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.

“We were afraid, going into it, of getting the cold shoulder because we were National Guard,” Riddick acknowledges. “I didn’t really experience a whole lot of that. To me, everybody was super friendly. I had the Master Gunner badge. That helped. People will show you a little more respect and expect more from you.

“After the first couple of days and we were pretty high on the leader board, I think it was like, The National Guard team’s not half bad,” he recalls. “The international teams were awesome. I love learning about other people’s cultures. And the Dutch team inspired me to run faster during one of our PT tests.”

For the victory, the Tennessee crew received commemorative pistols at a special awards ceremony. They were also inducted into the Order of Saint George Medallion of the U.S. Armor Association. Saint George is the patron saint of mounted warriors and is often depicted on horseback.

Their run as the Army’s top tank crew will run for two years, until the next Sullivan Cup tank competition in 2026. But they won’t be there to defend the title, Riddick says.

“We were told that once you win it, you can’t come back and compete again,” he says. “It’s kind of like a one-and-done thing. But you do have the opportunity to mentor and coach the next team from your regiment that comes through.”

Which means Iceman may have a hand in forging the Army’s next Top Guns.

Bob Haskell is a retired Maine Army National Guard master sergeant and a freelance journalist in Falmouth, Mass. He may be contacted at magazine@ngaus.org.

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TOP PHOTO: (from left) Spc. Noah “Rooster” Eddings, Staff Sgt. David “Iceman” Riddick, Sgt. Joshua “Maverick” Owens and Sgt. Seth “Viper” Carter beat 10 other top crews to win the competition at Fort Moore, Georgia. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Arturo Guzman)

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Guard Wins Not Unusual At Military Competitions

NATIONAL GUARD TEAMS more than hold their own in Army, Air Force, Defense Department and international military competitions.

In recent years, Army Guard soldiers have won the Army’s prestigious Best Ranger (Colorado Capt. Robert Killian and Pennsylvania Sgt. Erich Friedlein in 2016) and Best Warrior (Montana Staff Sgt. Michael Noyce Merio in 2008 and Utah Sgt. Guy Mellow in 2011) competitions.

They’ve also won the Sullivan Cup before (four members of North Carolina’s C Company, 1st Battalion, 252nd Armor Regiment in 2016).

Below are some more recent Guard victories, according to the National Guard Bureau:

● Staff Sgt. John Jordan won the individual title, and his South Carolina Army Guard team took the team trophy, at the 2024 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships in March at Fort Moore, Georgia.

● Massachusetts and Vermont Air Guard fighter units won a combined six events at the first William Tell Air-to-Air Competition in 19 years Sept. 15 at the Air Dominance Center in Savannah, Georgia. The event gathered F-22 Raptor, F-35A Lightning II and F-15 Eagle and Strike Eagle units from across the active-component Air Force and the Air Guard.

● New Mexico Army Guard Sgt. 1st Class Erik Vargas and Arkansas Army Guard Staff Sgts. Benjamin Cotten and Allen Smith took first place at the 2023 International Sniper Competition in April 2023 at then-Fort Benning, Georgia. The event attracted 35 teams from around the world.

● A team of five Army and Air Guard cyberwarriors from five states won the 2022 SANS NetWars Department of Defense Services Cup in December 2022 in Washington, D.C. It was the third consecutive year a Guard team has won the cybersecurity competition.

● Additionally, Florida’s 159th Weather Flight in December 2022 topped 66 teams to win its second consecutive Thor’s Forecast Challenge, a two-week competition that tests Air Force weather flights’ ability to develop hour-by-hour forecasts across the globe.

— NGAUS staff report