Looking back over the last several weeks of training for the USAREUR NCO and Soldier of the Year Competition I am glad that level of training was intense and constant. From Sunday 10 August to Thursday 14 August the competition events were physical and required a good base of knowledge to perform the tasks.
10 August began the event with a short briefing and then loading onto a bus which took us to a local Grafenwohr restaurant where we had a great Bavarian meal and got to know each other a little bit around the table. Once we returned to the NCOA it was back to the barracks to get ready for the next day and go to sleep.
11 August started off with physical fitness test. I broke my record for the two mile event coming across the finish line in 12:10. After a quick breakfast we were given one hour to write an essay on the challenges we face daily in the Army and then one hour for a written exam. The board proceedings in my class A uniform went very fast. With only 15 minutes allotted to each competitor we followed on each other’s heels into the board room and skipped all introductions in order to go straight into a fast line of questioning. After exiting the board room SFC Newman was obviously pleased with my performance. I had answered the questions so quickly and moved onto the next that he did not have time to write down any of the questions or my responses. The evening ended with a qualification shoot at the skill trainer with the electronic M4 and range along with a roll over drill in the dark in the M998 that turns over.
12 August was the most physically intense day. With a 0230 wake up we took all the naps we could throughout the day to make up for our loss of sleep. Busing out to a training area we went through rapid fire lanes, vehicle search, and hands on weapon knowledge. The highlight of the morning was going to the urban terrain site where we encountered a group of German soldiers that a mission to complete in the city before they could be extracted. With the leader wounded it was upon the competitors to take charge of the mission and the German soldiers. The scenario takes everyone into the tunnel system below the city where an escape route has to be found in complete darkness carrying a full ruck sack and leading two Germans, one of whom is closterphobic.
After a day M4 range it was onto the highlight event of the day, the 15km ruck march. With full gear, ruck and weapon everyone knows it is not just a march - it is a race. On go, I took off as fast as I could and pulled ahead. It was not easy to stay ahead, but that is where all of the training I have been doing paid off. At the 9km mark a soldier caught up and pulled ahead at a pace that I could not keep up with, but I did manage to push through and cross the line as the first NCO. The day was topped off with a night fire range where the range was lit by parachute flares.
13 August spent nearly the entire day at the situational training lanes. There were eight tasks to complete, from observing enemy movements and making a report, to taking charge of a three vehicle convoy to conduct a route recon. We conducted triage and first aid, lead a team on chemical hazard recon, threw grenades, lead a team on a dismount patrol in search for weapons cache and installed a claymore mine. At the end of each task we were given the grid location to our next task and 45 minutes to get there. The 15km road march left my feet hurting which made my movement difficult, but I made it to each station. By night fall my feet felt better for the night orienteering. Given several points in a nearby camp I set out at a run to find each one in the dark. I was so excited to return first that SFC Newman and I decided not to wait for the others to return and left the bus behind to jog back to the Academy and go to sleep.
14 August was our out briefing and after action review. As soon as I arrived home I met the Brown family that had come over to see us and have a vacation and got to work on my homework so that we could start our journey together.
On 27 August I drove the three and a half hours down to Kaiserslautern with SFC Newman for the award banquet luncheon practice. After spending the night in our hotel we had a quick breakfast and got ready for the ceremony. When the names of the winners were finally called the soldier of the year turned out to be my training partner, SGT Stanley Black. SSG Higgs was called as the NCO winner and will move on to compete in Washington. It would have been great to move on and up, but I am happy with what I did and had a great time doing it. I still get to go to Washington with all the other competitors to work in the USAREUR booth at a convention there. That will give me an opportunity to get out some and see the nation’s capitol and some of the monuments in the area.
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