FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii-The finest soldiers and noncommissioned officers in the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command from Japan and Hawaii will be demonstrating their abilities when the 94th AAMDC administers its Warrior Challenge Competition on Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, May 3- 5.
The 94th AAMDC has hosted this competition since their activation in 2005. The 94th uses this as an opportunity to fulfill two goals:
"This annual competition allows for professional development and we must seize every training opportunity presented. The soldiers who compete at this level are internally driven and self motivated, professional warriors. The intense training that they put themselves through along with the help of their sponsors only creates a better soldier. The individual soldier, the unit and the Army are benefitted," said 1st Sgt. Oubrinyahn Stonewall, first sergeant, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 94th AAMDC. "Second, it provides an opportunity for stellar warriors to match their skills against equally ambitious peers."
"A lot of the process involved publishing the operation orders in a timely manner, the IPRs (initial planning review), terrain walk of area Xray (area on Schofield Barracks where events will take place), talking one-on-one with each person that had a hand in making this competition a reality.
All these are critical to insure the success of any training event," said Master Sgt. Phillip Stewart, operations NCO, 94th AAMDC after recently joining the unit last month.
"My biggest obstacle to overcome was joining the team after the planning had already been completed and not knowing the people that had been tasked for support. This is a collective effort with people from all shops being tasked, so just ensuring that everyone was on the same sheet has been difficult."
"Master Sgt. Cook (G-3, plans and exercises NCOIC) and 1st Sgt. Stonewall (HHB, 94th AAMDC) were instrumental in bringing everyone together and ensuring everyone knew his or her responsibilities for the event," he added.
The soldiers and NCOs will compete in nine events: the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), weapon qualifications, reflexive fire, pre-combat inspections of all their required gear, day and night land navigation, warrior tasks and drills, verbal examination board, written essay, written test, and a mystery event that will be revealed at the time of administration.
This year, in addition to the basic rifle marksmanship portion of the competition, soldiers will be given 32 rounds for reflexive fire, which demonstrates the candidates' ability to react to, engage, and hit a target. Those who achieve 32 hits will receive 50 points and fewer points based on performance.
The event that has proven to be one of the most difficult in previous years will be when the soldiers perform land navigation during both the day and night. This event will demonstrate the soldiers' ability to find points on the map and travel by foot to those locations within a given amount of time. This event is scored by the locations they find. There will be five locations and if they find all five then that is 50 points and fewer points based on their ability to locate all points. The course is difficult and the terrain makes it one of the hardest land-navigation courses in the Army.
The sixth event is the exam portion where the contestants will answer questions that will show knowledge of various leadership and soldiering subjects. This exam is worth 25 points and is followed by a written essay which will require the soldier explain in his or her own words how they would react to different scenarios.
The last event is where the soldiers will report to a verbal examination board. The board, which is made up of a panel of NCOs, will require the soldier to demonstrate their knowledge of a variety of subjects as well as their respective job in the military. This is another tool also to show how the soldiers carry themselves under a different kind of pressure.
In order for someone to compete in this year's competition, the soldier had to be selected at the company level prior to arriving. Then the SoY and NCOY winners will compete at the U.S. Army Pacific Command level, which is the next level leading up to the Department of the Army level competition.
"We (the 94th AAMDC) understand that iron sharpens iron; so, during the competition we know that only one NCO and only one soldier will emerge as the sharpest, but they will fully understand that they haven't achieved that edge on their own," said Stonewall. "The victors will have learned to not fear competition, to respect their opponent, and they will have understood the blueprint necessary to duplicate great warriors."
The public is invited to observe the competition and cheer on the participants. For more information on the Warrior Challenge Competition and the contestants refer to the 94th AAMDC website at http://www.usarpac.army.mil/94AAMDC/
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