Staff Sgt. Antoine L. Echols, contracting NCO from the 926th Contracting Battalion, crosses the finish line in first place during the USA Track and Field Masters Indoor Championship held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Echols received first-place medals...
2. Sitting on the first-place podium at the USA Track and Field Masters Indoor Championship, Staff Sgt. Antoine L. Echols, from the 926th Contracting Battalion in support of the Army Contracting Command -- Aberdeen Proving Ground, displays his winnin...
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md--An Army Contracting Command -- Aberdeen Proving Ground Soldier will be recognized, as the Command, Control Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance quarterly award winner, but he won't be there to get it.
Staff Sgt. Antoine L. Echols, a contract specialist assigned to the 926th Contracting Battalion, named the C4ISR Employee of the Quarter (junior category) for the second quarter, is deployed. He also nearly missed one of the activities for which he is being recognized due to his deployment.
According to the award criteria, the intent of the award program is to identify and reward outstanding C4ISR personnel who demonstrate the ideals of leadership, competency and service.
Although this is a second quarter award, Echols' story began in 2015 when he trained and competed in the USA Track and Field Masters Indoor Championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He brought home gold medals in the 60-meter and 200-meter races for the 30-35 age group. After these wins, Echols was determined to defend his titles in the 2016 competition.
Echols trained for the 2016 competition while he simultaneously performed his contracting duties and prepared for his deployment in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. He learned that he would report on March 4 for pre-deployment processing at the Continental U.S. Replacement Center, Fort Bliss, Texas. The 2016 USATF Masters Indoor Championships were scheduled for March 5, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his dreams of defending his titles faded away.
Understanding the importance of this championship to Echols, leaders from the 926th Contracting Battalion and the CRC stepped in to assist. They authorized Echols to miss some training and to travel to the race site.
"Well, that was a very stressful weekend. Leaving Aberdeen knowing how much my leadership put into making all this happen for me was great," Echols pointed out. "I think the hardest part about that weekend was [worrying about] not disappointing my leadership and co-workers back in Aberdeen who supported me since day one. I think going into the race, I wasn't nervous about those I was competing against, but was more concerned about bringing back two gold medals to APG.
"On top of all that, I was stressing about leaving my family behind," he added. "Deploying has never been an issue with me, but in a case like this a lot was going on in such a small window."
Echols represented the Army with a first place finish in both events, finishing the 60-meter race in 6.77 seconds, and the 200-meter race in 21.67 seconds, beating his previous year's record.
"My future plans are to hopefully get the Army more involved with supporting this sport," Echols said. "I would love to see this sport as a part of the world class athletic program that the Army currently has with other sports."
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