18th Engineer Soldiers battle it out in competition

Courtesy Photo | (Center two) Pvt. Christopher Bidwell, 42nd Clearance Company, 54th Engineer Battalion and a native of Port Orange, Fla., and Sgt. Terrance Barton, 370th Sapper Company, 54th Engineer Battalion, and a native of Houston, pose for a photo after being awarded Army Commendation medals. Bidwell and Barton are the Fiscal Year 2011 18th Engineer Brigade Warrior and Warrior Leader of the Year winners and will represent their brigade at the 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s competition.  

SCHWEINFURT, GERMANY

10.20.2010

Courtesy Story

21st Theater Sustainment Command

By Spc. Aislinn M. Amig

SCHWEINFURT, Germany – With little sleep and hours of physical stress ahead of them, six soldiers and six non-commissioned officers from 18th Engineer Brigade battled it out in the brigade’s Warrior and Warrior Leader of the Year competition held, Sept. 21-23 here.

The competitors were assessed on a number of soldier skills to include their ability to egress a vehicle during a roll-over and complete a night land navigation course. Their endurance was also tested during events like a stress shoot range, 12-mile ruckmarch, and many other physically demanding events. Participants were required to write essays on their knowledge of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy and Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, focusing on how the program can work to benefit themselves and other Soldiers.

“It is good training, good competition. Lots of guys out there want to win so it’s been tough,” said Sgt. Ernesto Juarez, a competitor from the Forward Support Company, 54th Engineer Battalion, 18th Eng. Bde. and a native of Bruno, Idaho.

The winners of the competition were Sgt. Terrance Barton, a team leader for 370th Sapper Company, 54th Eng. Bn. and a native of Houston, and Pvt. Christopher Bidwell, 42nd Clearance Company, 54th Eng. Bn. and a native of Port Orange, Fla. They were congratulated for achievements at a ceremony, Oct. 15. at Conn Barracks in Schweinfurt.

Col. Paul M. Paolozzi, the 18th Eng. Bde. commander, addressed all the participants at the ceremony.

“It is not the critic who counts – not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly,” said Paolozzi, quoting an excerpt from the Citizenship in a Republic speech, delivered by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910. “Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

“You are not those timid souls; you are the ones who dared greatly,” Paolozzi said during the ceremony to the soldiers who competed.

• Date Taken: 10.20.2010
• Date Posted: 10.20.2010 07:04
• Story ID: 58464
• Location: SCHWEINFURT, DE