Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Michael Davis | Two Maryland Army National Guard Soldiers competed in the Army National Guard Region...... read more read more
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Two Maryland Army National Guard Soldiers competed in the Army National Guard Region II Best Warrior Competition at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., May 20-23, 2014.
After winning the state’s Best Warrior Competition in March, Sgt. Michael L. Firth, from C Company, 1st Squadron, 158th Cavalry Regiment, and Spc. Michael A. Robinson, from the same unit, both advanced to the regionals to represent Maryland.
Firth competed in the noncommissioned officer category and Robinson in the Soldier category; both were named runners-up.
“The runner-up is almost as important as being the winner of this competition,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Gundrum, Pennsylvania National Guard senior enlisted leader. “With the ability to go on to the National Guard competition, if for some reason the competitors that won this competition couldn’t make it, the runner-up would be selected to take their place.”
Soldiers from all over the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes West Virginia, Virginia, Washington D.C., Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, tested their mettle at the competition.
The ARNG Best Warrior Competition consists of a written test, an Army Physical Fitness Test, qualifications with various weapons, day and night land navigation, a 6-mile ruck march, and demonstrating various warrior tasks. After all this, the Soldiers were graded on their overall Army knowledge and the appearance of their Army Service Uniform while standing before a review board.
“It was different from the previous competition,” said Firth. “It was more dynamic, and I thought it was better done in that way because you weren’t thinking of a technical task, you were just reacting the way you were trained.”
Gundrum said he wanted to put a lot of stressors on the competitors to prepare them for the next level.
“We kept them very busy, a lot of physical activities and not so much sleep,” Gundrum said. “They had days starting as early as 0300 in the morning, and then they would go until 1800 (6 p.m.), 1900, [or] 2000 at night without a lot of breaks in between.”
Robinson agreed that the tempo was the source of a lot of stress during the competition.
“The challenging part of it was that the events were one after the other,” Robinson said. “Rather than having a ruck march one day and a PT test another day, they were all consecutive in one day. They definitely built up stress, but you had to push through.”
In the midst of all of the stressors, Firth and Robinson had their mentor, Staff Sgt. Eric Zubkus, training noncommissioned officer from their unit, Command Sgt. Major Thomas B. Beyard, the Maryland National Guard Command Sergeant Major, and other sergeants major encouraging and supporting them.
Firth and Robinson said their support system boosted their morale even when they felt they didn’t do well in certain categories.
“They’re always there reminding us to focus on the next event, telling us to keep motivated and making sure we didn’t beat ourselves up but [kept] moving on,” Firth said.
Firth and Robinson didn’t win the competition but still performed very well while representing Maryland.
“When I’m representing my state I really think of all eyes on me from the entire state - all of the Soldiers, all of the senior enlisted, all of the junior enlisted, all of the officers - and I need to do the best I can to make the state look good,” Robinson said. “Win or lose, I got to make [it] look good in some type of way.”
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 05.28.2014 12:18 |
| Story ID: | 131320 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 147 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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