The U.S. Army Military District of Washington's Best Warrior Competition at Fort A.P. Hill, Va., tested the mettle of some of the Army's best Soldiers July 23 to 27.
Top noncommissioned officer (sergeant and above) was Staff Sgt. Tyler J. Turner of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., and top Soldier (specialist and below) was Spc. Paul Welte of the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Myer, Va.
Turner and Welte were among 11 competitors, including the U.S. Army Human Resources Command's Sgt. 1st Class Elite Pierre, who earned second runner-up for top NCO. If Turner is unable to compete in the Department of the Army Best Warrior Competition at Fort Lee, Va., this October, Fort Knox, Ky., Soldier Pierre will compete in his place.
Pierre and the other 10 competitors, though, had to "keep their heads in the game" and stay focused on the competition at hand.
"Competition was tight," Pierre said. "Each event was equally challenging, and what made it so was that we didn't know what the next event was until it was time to do it. That gave us little time to prepare for it."
The competitors' lack of prep time didn't deter Pierre, although he did hit some rough patches in the competition. Despite losing a substantial number of points on land navigation and weapons qualification, Pierre only missed first place in the entire competition by 11 points.
"If I do get a chance to go to DA, I know I'll win because I have the skills, knowledge and experience to be the Army's Best Warrior," Pierre said.
He and the others battled it out in 14 areas of competition. Pierre related the highlights.
Warrior tasks
The warrior tasks included medical (four tasks); land navigation (three); detainee operations (one); weapons [four -- assemble and disassemble three U.S. military standard weapons (M-9 9 mm pistol, M-4 semiautomatic rifle, M-247 automatic rifle) and one non-standard weapon (AK-47 automatic rifle)].
"I never touched an AK-47 until this competition," Pierre said, "but they said there would be a lot of non-standard events so, with the knowledge that the weapon of choice in the Middle East is the AK-47, I went to a local gun store and asked the owner if he would assemble and disassemble the AK-47 (displayed) on his wall."
Assembling and disassembling the non-standard AK-47 proved easier for Pierre than the standard M-9 9 mm pistol.
"What hung me up at the weapons station was the 9 mil. It's the simplest weapon to assemble and disassemble, but, with everything else I had in my mind, I struggled with one of the simple tasks. It took me a while to recall where to put the spring in the 9 mil. I got it, but it took longer than I hoped it would. The graders were looking at me, and they were cracking up!" Pierre said.
Weapons qualification
During weapons qualification, Pierre's skills seemed to fail him. Pierre didn't make the 23-hit minimum to qualify.
"This is where I lost it. Had I shot like I shoot, I would have won. Had I shot like most people who can't shoot, I would have won. I blew it, man! I only had 21 hits out of 40," Pierre said. "A hit doesn't count unless that target drops: Targets pop up, you acquire the target and engage the target. I had no problem acquiring the target. I had no problem engaging the target, but the target did not fall on 19 of my engagements. This event was worth 50 points, and I got a big doughnut!"
Reflexive fire
Pierre redeemed himself during the reflexive-fire portion of the competition.
"The value of reflexive fire is that in-theater that's the most-common scenario -- in buildings, clearing rooms, small towns or villages," Pierre said. "The chances of the enemy being in close quarters -- within 20 meters of you -- are greater than the enemy being at a distance."
The task was to engage a verbally identified shape and color with two rounds, called a controlled pair, at the blow of a whistle. Each competitor has three seconds to shoot two shots. Points are deducted for misses and for safety violations, such as lack of muzzle awareness, failure to put the weapon on safe and firing after the time has elapsed.
The five variations were stand-and-shoot, turn-and-shoot, lateral walk-and-shoot (shoot while walking), 10-meter run-stop-and-shoot and 10-meter run-kneel-and-shoot.
In the reflexive-fire contest, competitors were allowed a dry run -- to go through the drill without firing -- so they knew what to expect.
"On the run-kneel-and-shoot, it's impossible to get two shots off. If you shoot two shots, you're going to get an infraction for the second shot because it's going to be after the whistle. There's not enough time to reacquire the target," he said. "There was an extra round in my magazine when the event was over. Other people shot that second shot and lost points."
Run-kneel-and-shoot isn't as easy as it looks, Pierre said.
"It's not bang-bang. It's bang, reacquire, then bang. You must reacquire the target because of the recoil," he said. "If you don't reacquire the target, you're going to miss. If you shoot and miss after the end whistle, you lose two points -- one for the miss and one for the infraction."
Pierre's weapons skill and his ability to make sound decisions teamed up to give him a solid score on reflexive fire. He counted 17 out of 20.
"Decision-making is part of the competition," he said. "You have to be able to analyze the situation and make a decision."
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