They say that there can be many paths to a single destination. So, when youâre given specific directions, it doesnât mean that there arenât others ways to get where youâre going.
So, when Staff Sgt. Robert McCain decided to take a different route to complete his mission, he was deemed a creative problem solver.
Even if it did draw a facepalm from some of his superiors. McCain was competing in the 2022 Best Ranger Competition, which uses mental and physical exercises to test the skill and grit of elite Airborne Rangers.


He and Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Peterson, who both serve as instructors with the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia, competed with Team 41.
They finished 14th out of 51 teams who endured climbing, swimming, running and crawling events.
McCain had people talking about his performance in Saturdayâs mystery event. The event had McCain and Peterson open a box by decoding a message from a Revolutionary War-era Culper Code, which would reveal the word used to open the lock on a box.


What McCain heard was âopen the box.â
And his first instinct wasnât to get cracking on that code.
It was to manhandle the box and see if that worked.


âDonât break the box,â his instructor told him. âDonât break the box.â
McCain was a bit confused.
âYou mean I have to undo the lock? Because it doesnât say that. It says open the locked ammo can,â McCain said.


His instructor just repeated herself,â âDonât break the box. Thatâs the only box we have.â
McCain insisted that he wasnât.
In the meantime, his partner was still working on the code while peeking over to see what McCain had going on.


âYou do you, baby,â McCain told Peterson.
The video of McCainâs attempt to open the box ended up going viral.
He was deemed as an archetype of a non-commissioned officer in the military that finds creatives solutions to problems that are technically correct even if they are unconventional, according to Task & Purpose.


McCainâs mom Lou Ann says she wasnât surprised by her sonâs methods.
âThatâs him,â she said.
Neither was Capt. Shawn Gardner who put the mystery event together.


âOne thing I know escape room owners and managers would learn over time is, you have to plan for the worst thing to happen, right? So if you donât give them specific instructions not to do that, they will probably have at least one â like him â that would try to do that,â Gardner said.


âAnd McCain too, I know him personally, we worked last year together. He has a very big personality and he is the kind of person that would go in and do that ⌠It was really funny that he was the one to do that.â
Check out the hilarious video below.
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A *chefâs kiss* moment from today with Team 41 â during the mystery event, competitors were instructed to decode a message which would include the key to unlock the box.
*Technically* the instructions didnât say you had to decode the key first⌠pic.twitter.com/99CVf7SQkJ
â Haley Britzky (@halbritz) April 9, 2022