Fort Monmouth, N.J. - Every Soldier in the Army's Best Warrior 2009-2010 Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Competition faces a grueling five-day test of skill and endurance, but one competitor faces a unique challenge that began before his first board appearance.
Sergeant Matthew Phelan is a communications technician with the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center here. Despite being assigned to a post with very few Soldiers and little of the infrastructure needed to prepare for the hands-on parts of a warrior competition, Phelan won the Army Materiel Command and the Research, Development and Engineering Command titles and will compete in the Army-level competition beginning 28 September at Fort Lee, Va. Getting ready under those circumstances requires a lot of support from his unit, he said.
"Up here at Fort Monmouth we don't have a whole heck of a lot of resources," Phelan said. "Right now I'm just trying to hit the books. I'm doing some preparation work with the M4 (rifle) and the M9 (pistol) - minus the actual firing, of course."
"But pretty much the next three weeks is going to be jam-packed with stuff. Next week I'm going to Fort Dix (N.J.) to get combat lifesaver certified. The week after that I'm going to Fort Drum (N.Y.) to do whatever we can do up there. The week after that my sponsor and I are going to Aberdeen Proving Ground," the 6-year Army veteran explained.
Traveling to find the facilities and resources necessary to prepare for the Army competition cut short the amount the time Phelan had to bask in his late-July AMC win, but not his appreciation of it.
"It's pretty awesome. I enjoyed it for a week - more liked recovered from it for a week, really. The competition was pretty rough. They banged us up pretty good. Now it's go time, time to get back into the mindset of winning the Army competition. That's the Superbowl right there," said Phelan, who is a native of the Fort Monmouth area.
Phelan said his experience at the AMC competition on Fort Belvoir, Va., showed him how hard the Army competition will be.
"At the AMC competition they hit us with the usual suspects PT (physical training) of course, but that's only 17 or 18 minutes of work. And there was the board."
More taxing were the very tasks he couldn't train at his home station.
"You pretty much go from scenario to scenario - they tell you it's an (Improvised Explosive Device) strike, a downed aircraft, and so on, and once you get to the town they hit you with more warrior tasks," Phelan recounted.
"That was full battle rattle with your rifle and your rucksack. They quoted the rucksack as a 40-pound sand bag, but I promise you it was at least 50 pounds and maybe 55. It was so big they had to put it in a garbage bag. Unless you're living with a rucksack on your back there's no way to get used to that. Coming from Fort Monmouth it was an eye opener," Phelan said.
Despite having to be more creative finding ways to get ready than some of his competitors, Phelan thinks the competition will pay off for everybody.
"There are a lot of things you don't even touch on unless you're with a unit that's ready to roll out to theater, so its keeping you sharp," he said. "Everyone's getting some good training out of it."
Despite his focus on getting ready, Phelan isn't looking too far ahead.
"I consider everything I do a little story of my life, so only time will tell, but I do love what I do."
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