3rd Infantry Division hosted their 2024 Army Career Counselor and Retention Noncommissioned Officer of the Year competition at Fort Stewart, Georgia, Dec. 11-15, 2023.
The Army uses career counselors and retention officers to help keep Soldiers informed and educated when deciding what to do when their service contract ends. This competition was a week-long friendly battle between active duty and reserve components on or around Fort Stewart that tested both physical and mental aspects of the profession, including an Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), a written test, mystery events and finishing with a board.
The competitors underwent rigorous training and evaluation to get to the point of determining who would participate. The competition was held to highlight the best in the field and expand their knowledge and understanding of what is in the regulations of the Army within contracts.
“It gave me a reason to study more than what I already was doing before. Just being against some of the best career counselors forced me to learn more and want to do more to set myself apart,” said Staff Sgt. Damien Brown, an Army career counselor who participated in the competition.
Each participant in the competition had a sponsor, a senior leader who helped prepare and ready the Soldier who was competing. The sponsors had to have a vast knowledge of the career field themselves in order to guide and mentor the participants to help them succeed in the competition. Most of the sponsors had participated in the competition themselves and had a general understanding of the events that their Soldiers might encounter. They attended the same briefings, helped the Soldiers study, and inspected their dress uniforms for the board to give the Soldiers the best standing.
“What I like most is seeing the Soldiers participate in the tradition of going through the event,” said Sgt. 1st Class Lamont Mingo, the sponsor for Staff Sgt. Brown and a fellow career counselor. “Being able to pass down my knowledge and experience for what I went through and pay that forward to the next up. I help Brown so he can later take my position and be coaching his juniors one day.”
On the board, there were five sergeants major who asked questions and evaluated the military bearing and understanding of the regulations of the Soldier. They asked real-world questions about the career field and examined the overall performance of the participants throughout the competition. A combined score of the board evaluation, ACFT points, written tests, and mystery events determined the winner of the Army Career Counselor and Retention NCO of the Year Competition.
“I hope they have a great experience overall, whether they win or not just having that experience and seeing this different side of our field, you know, not just their everyday job and I want them to learn from it,” stated Sgt. Maj. Carida Godby, the board president and Command Career Counselor for 3rd ID.
The winners of the Career Counselor of the Year and Retention NCO of the Year competition will move on to represent the Third Infantry Division at the 18th Airborne Corps competition in January. The winners of the competition were Retention NCO of the Year Sgt. Frenchon Harris, Alpha Company, 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, Reserve Component Career Counselor of the Year Staff Sgt. Jared Taylor, Reserve Component, and Career Counselor of the Year Staff Sgt. Gabrielle Jacobs, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.
Through the competition, the 3rd ID and the Army wanted to highlight the hard work and the vast knowledge that Soldiers have in their chosen career field while promoting healthy competition and striving to be the best.
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