Two Soldiers from Greater Cincinnati finished first and second in First Army Division East's quarterly Best Warrior Competition, hosted by 4th Cavalry Multi-Functional Training Brigade, from April 10-12, at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
4-306th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 188th Infantry Brigade Observer Coach/Trainer Staff Sgt. Frederick Avery won the event, and 1-306th Infantry Battalion, 188th Infantry OC/T Staff Sgt. Sean O'Hara finished second. Both will compete at a First Army-wide Best Warrior competition in May, against other quarterly Best Warrior competition winners from First Army Division East and Division West.
Day one events included an obstacle course and confidence course, run back-to-back. O'Hara, who graduated from Lebanon High School, Lebanon, Ohio, in 2008, said the obstacles on the confidence course were different than what he'd seen in the past.
"It was grueling, too, because we had to do it for time, so we could never totally catch our breath," O'Hara said.
Day one continued with several other events, including rifle marksmanship and day and night land navigation. Day two began with a 12-mile road march, where the candidates carried 55-pound rucksacks.
"The ruck march was the most challenging thing," Avery said, "because it was challenging both mentally and physically. You just had to keep on going."
All of the candidates in the First Army Division East quarterly event are OC/Ts at their respective units, Soldiers who train Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers preparing to deploy. Avery, a 2008 graduate of Batavia High School, Batavia, Ohio, believes the competition will improve them as they train partner units. "It helps us get back into the groove of actually operating the weapons systems and that will help us more effectively mentor our partner units on those weapons."
Following the ruck march, the candidates moved into a stress fire lane. "This was a little bit different," said Avery. "We had to load our magazines, run back and forth, and deal with smoke and noise." The smoke came from smoke grenades tossed in the line of fire to make target acquisition more challenging.
The lane was run by Soldiers from 3-409th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Cav MFTB, including Sgt. 1st Class Arnez Lamb, an OC/T with that unit. "To me the event builds a lot of character. You don't know what you can do until you do it. They really challenged themselves to get through each event," Lamb said.
Avery and O'Hara will challenge themselves again in May, when they return to Fort Knox to compete in the First Army wide Best Warrior competition, also hosted by 4th Cav MFTB.
"I'm ready to move on to the next one that's coming up," Avery said, "and I'm ready to win it."
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