Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts an office call for 2025 Best Ranger Competition winners U.S. Army Capt. Kevin Moore and U.S. Army Capt. Griffin Hokanson at the Pentagon, Sept. 16, 2025. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
Two Army Rangers were recognized at the Pentagon on Tuesday for their victory in the Army’s 41st Annual David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition this year.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth met with Army Capt. Kevin Moore and Capt. Griffin Hokanson — both from the 75th Ranger Regiment — and commended them on their performance during the competition, according to a Defense Department news release.
“Performing at the highest level is exactly what we would want everybody to aspire to,” Hegseth said, per the release. “That’s what it is: excellence. … Our enemies know what we’re capable of … [and] these two captains embody that.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts an office call for 2025 Best Ranger Competition winners U.S. Army Capt. Kevin Moore and U.S. Army Capt. Griffin Hokanson at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Sept. 16, 2025. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
Hegseth also gave the Rangers a private tour of the Pentagon which focused heavily on Army history.
“The Pentagon tour, it’s great. Coming from the Ranger Regiment, you kind of reflect on what the [Regiment’s] been doing over the past 20-plus years, going back to the terrorist attacks that sparked our conflicts that we’ve lived through,” Hokanson said.
Hokanson and Moore took the top prize in the Best Ranger Competition in Fort Benning, Ga., on April 13, earning a victory for their special operations unit for the fourth straight year.
The Army’s Best Ranger Competition is a grueling three-day event at Fort Benning that tests the physical, mental and tactical limits of two-person teams from across the Armed Forces. The competition is meant to determine the best Ranger-qualified team.
Two soldiers entering the finish line in the 41st Annual David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition at Fort Benning, GA, April 13, 2025. (Christopher Grey/U.S. Army)