JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Six Troop Command Soldiers competed Nov. 19-21 to be named Brooke Army Medical Center's Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year.
In the end, Army Pfc. Pascal Anderson, C Company, from Cologne, Germany, was named Soldier of the Year, and Army Sgt. Henry Gross III, C Company, from Fort Pierce, Florida, garnered the title of NCO of the Year during a ceremony Nov. 22 at BAMC.
Coincidentally, both Soldiers are radiology specialists and work as x-ray technologists in the Radiology Department.
"It was great to go side-by-side with my fellow 68P (radiology specialist) until the very end," Gross said. ""It was a really long three days. It was hard, but everybody got better."
Anderson agreed, thanking Gross for being "on the path" with him and never giving up.
To be named the Soldier and NCO of the year, the Soldiers who were named quarterly winners had to compete in several events including the new Army Combat Fitness Test, an oral board and written test, urban and night land navigation, combatives, one-mile water jug carry, an obstacle course, a six-mile ruck march, tactical combat casualty care and warrior tasks, weapons qualification, and 12-mile ruck march.
During the ceremony, BAMC Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Oates thanked the cadre for putting the events together and congratulated all the competitors.
"Success comes before work only in the dictionary," Oates said. "You have to work at being successful. Hard work out-performs talent when talent doesn't work hard."
The CSM said that all the competitors were talented, hard-working individuals.
"Some say in competitions like this you have to be lucky to win," Oates added. "Luck is when hard work meets an opportunity. You guys had an opportunity and you worked hard, but two of you got lucky. You are all winners in our book."
Gross and Anderson will go on to compete in the Regional Medical Command-Central Best Warrior competition. If for some reason Gross or Anderson are unable to compete, two other Soldiers also train to compete.
"Be ready and stay ready, because you might be in the shoot," Oates said. "We don't go to the game to participate, we go to the game to win."
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