Who will be the Best Warrior'
That question loomed over an impressively strong field of 28 of the sharpest warfighters the Army Reserve had to offer during the annual Best Warrior Competition.
The four-day battle of minds, brute strength and guts that sought to establish one Soldier and one noncommissioned officer as the best Soldier and NCO around was held July 13 to 17 at Fort McCoy, Wis.
Of that number, two of the 200th Military Police Command\'s finest MPs -- Sgt. Lucas Heideman and Spc. Brandon Harp, of the 300th and 800th MP Brigades -- proved that MP Soldiers are a force to be reckoned with in any arena.
"Usually you get young E5s that excel in one area. With Sergeant Heideman, he excels in a lot of areas," said Sgt. 1st Class David A. Kline, Heideman's sponsor at the competition and supervisor of their unit. "He's always one who gives the extra effort."
Heideman, a military police investigator at the 415th MP Company in Pocahontas, Iowa, did indeed pour a huge amount of effort into the competition -- even in the midst of a deployment to Afghanistan with his unit. The Waukee, Iowa, native was released from his mobilization site the week of the competition to represent the 200th at Fort McCoy.
The timing of Heideman's pre-mobilization training could not have been more perfect, as many of the tasks that he and his unit were training in for combat were presented as challenges during the BWC.
"Basically, the Army's been paying me to get ready for this," he said.
Heideman appreciated the high level of competitiveness among the contenders and hoped to have an extra edge during the weapons qualification event, for which his training as an MP provided a near-certain advantage.
"I guess you could say it's my bread and butter," he said. "I don't know if I'll shoot expert, but on a good day I will. I wish we were firing the M9 [semiautomatic pistol]."
Like many of the contestants, Heideman did not look forward to the ruck march, which was scheduled for 5 a.m. on the third day of the competition.
"A lot of people say it's a 10K with a 35-pound ruck -- that's not that bad," he said. "But after a PT test, plus the two [10K] orienteering courses and lack of sleep, it's pretty tough."
The BWC challenged entrants in a range of tasks, including the Army Physical Fitness Test, M-4 carbine range qualification, Army Warrior Tasks, an appearance board and a written essay.
A number of less common challenges were also thrown at the competitors, including day and night urban orienteering courses using Defense Advanced Global Positioning System receivers instead of the traditional magnetic compass, and a round-robin-styled mystery event with stations that included adjusting indirect fire, reassembling several individual and crew-served weapons, and -- wait for it -- a class A uniform inspection'
"I was definitely not expecting that," Harp said.
In the weeks leading up to competition, Harp focuses intently on preparing for the events that he knew would pose the greatest challenge, after much suffering at the 200th's BWC in April.
"I really felt confident on the ruck march," he said. "That's what I trained on the most, because I knew how hard the last one was for me. I tried to fix that problem."
Harp's training regimen included daily ruck marches, running five miles a day, and a number of push-ups -- not to mention constantly studying warrior tasks and training manuals for the weapons that he would be challenged to reassemble under pressure, said Sgt. 1st Class Coit M. Dixon, Harp's sponsor at the competition.
"From what I understand, he's been rucking 50 miles a week, and doing huge amounts of push-ups every day. He would watch movies, and when something would happen in the movie, he would start pushing," said Staff Sgt. Brandon L. Horne, Harp's team leader at the 304th MP Battalion, a combat support unit in Bluefield, W. Va.
Apparently his preparation paid off, as he was able to complete the daytime 10K urban orienteering course in just under two hours. Harp went on to finish the competition as runner-up to the overall junior enlisted winner, Spc. Shiloh Becher of the 416th Theater Engineer Command, Darien, Ill.
Social Sharing