Soldiers compete to be best of the best

FORT BENNING, Ga., (March 9 2016) -- More than two dozen highly qualified Soldiers competed to earn the title of Maneuver Center of Excellence NCO, Platoon Sergeant, Drill Sergeant, and Soldier of the Year during the Best Warrior Competition Feb. 28-March 1.

The Best Warrior Competition is designed to push competitors to their limits, but this year presented a new challenge for competitors as the event was condensed into two days instead of the normal five days, said Sgt. Maj. Mark Moore, MCoE G3 sergeant major and coordinator of the event.

"We found the competitors weren't as stressed (in previous competitions) as much as we'd like them to be so we decided to combine a lot of the tasks. We added little rest, added little sleep, added little food, added a little bit more stress to them to see how they perform," said Moore.

The two-day, 40-hour competition put competitors through a myriad of tasks, said Moore. They not only fired weapons systems, they were required to call for fire, take a written exam at midnight after finishing combatives, complete night and day land navigation, treat and evaluate a casualty, conduct PT and then walk into a board of sergeants major to answer questions.

Soldier of the Year is Spc. Richard Martin of the 316th Cavalry Brigade and runner-up is Spc. Kenneth Vice of Airborne and Ranger Training Bde. NCO of the Year is Staff Sgt. Edward Hall of 194th Armored Bde. and runner up is Staff Sgt. Scott Salter of 199th Infantry Bde. The winner of Platoon Sergeant of the Year is Staff Sgt. Dominique Curry of the 194th Armored Bde. The winner of Drill Sergeant of the Year is Staff Sgt. Tyler Cushing of the 194th Armored Bde. and the runner up is Staff Sgt. Kristopher Jackson of the 198th Infantry Bde.

In order to be selected to compete in Best Warrior, competitors were recommended by their chain of command and then went through an extensive board process from company level to command level.

"It's something that I think everybody should strive to do: find something that's a challenge and go for it. Whether it be Best Warrior, Best Ranger, Best Sniper, all those things breed excellence and that's what we really need in the Army," said Cushing.

Maneuver Center of Excellence Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Metheny, echoed this sentiment while recalling a speech by Teddy Roosevelt called "The Man in the Arena" before announcing the winners.

"People on the sidelines sit and talk about how they would have done it better or tried harder, but at the end of the day they aren't in the arena. It's these folks who put their name on the line, who step out here on their own free will to represent their companies, troops, squadrons, battalions and brigades because they've been through several competitions before they got out here today," said Metheny.

The winners of the competition will have the opportunity to advance to the Best Warrior competition, an all-Army event described as the "Super Bowl" of Army competitions according to the Army Best Warrior Competition webpage. The Drill Sergeant of the Year and Platoon Sergeant of the Year will go to Fort Jackson and will compete to be the Armywide Drill Sergeant and Platoon Sergeant of the Year, said Moore. The NCO and Soldier of the Year will go to TRADOC at Fort Eustis, Virginia where they will compete to advance to the Army level to win NCO and Soldier of the Year for the Army.