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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Four Soldiers assigned to Regional Health Command-Pacific units are competing this week in the U.S. Army Medical Command’s Best Leader Competition.
The BLC takes place July 25-30 at Bellows Air Force Station, Hawaii, and other locations on Oahu.
The competition is designed to promote “esprit de corps” while recognizing Soldiers who demonstrate a commitment to the Army values and embody the warrior ethos, according to organizers.
The Best Leader Competition recognizes those Soldiers who have superb military bearing and communication skills, a thorough knowledge of various military subjects, and the ability to perform a wide variety of Soldier skills.
Each team is made up of an officer, a senior non-commissioned officer, a junior NCO, and an enlisted Soldier.
To earn the right to compete in the MEDCOM competition, the RHC-P team first competed and won at the regional level last month at JBLM.
The RHC-P team is made up of three Soldiers from Desmond T. Doss Health Clinic, Hawaii, and one from U.S. Army Medical Department Activity-Korea.
Spc. Jarrett Rodriguez, a combat medic assigned to DDHC and the youngest member of the RHC-P team, said he was looking forward to tackling the MEDCOM BLC.
“I’m doing well,” he said. “I’m ready for the next competition.”
Rodriguez, a Santa Clarita, Calif., native, has been in the Army a little over 19 months, but the MEDCOM BLC isn’t the first military contest in which he’s taken part.
“I’ve been in a couple other competitions,” he said, “Best Warrior and the MEDCOM Warrior Initiative.”
Rodriguez said the DDHC team was going into the competition with something familiar to any sports fan: a home-field advantage.
“The weather’s starting to come into play a little bit,” he said, “I think if we’re back in Hawaii, it’s sort of our home town, so the humidity – we’ll be used to it.
“I’m ready to tackle Hawaii with my team,” Rodriguez added.
Winners of the MEDCOM Best Leader Competition go on to represent the command at the Army’s Best Warrior Competition this fall.
Regional Health Command-Pacific, headquartered at JBLM and in Honolulu, is the most geographically-dispersed command in Army Medicine, stretching more than 5,000 miles and five time zones across the Pacific.
The command oversees Army medical treatment facilities and units in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Hawaii, Japan and South Korea.
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