‘Best Warrior Competition’ wraps up this week

News: ‘Best Warrior Competition’ wraps up this week

14th Public Affairs Detachment

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Story by Staff Sgt. Wynnfred Hoke Follow This Journalist

Staff Sgt. Wynnfred Hoke

Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Barnes, a technical maintenance staff noncommissioned officer for Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 31st Air Defense Artillary Brigade and a native of Moss Point, Miss., looks through binaculars to adjust incoming rounds on the target during the "call-for-fire" simulation task at the 2011 III Corps Best Warrior-NCO and Soldier of The Year competition Held at Fort Hood, Texas. Barnes was later named the 2011 III Corps NCO of The Year and will go on to compete in the FORSCOM NCO of The Year competition held at Fort Hood, Texas, in July.

FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood hosted the 2011 III Corps NCO and Soldier of the Year Best Warrior Competition Monday through Wednesday, June 27-29. Full coverage of the winners, named at a ceremony Wednesday night at Club Hood, will appear in next week’s edition of the Sentinel.

During the three-day event, noncommissioned officers and soldiers from Fort Bliss, Fort Hood, Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Riley, Kan. showcased their tactical and technical skills in an effort to prove why they should be named the corps’ NCO and Soldier of the Year.

Each participant competed by taking an Army Physical Fitness Test and competing in a board presided over by the III Corps and Fort Hood Command Sergeant Major, Command Sgt. Maj. Arthur L. Coleman Jr., who tested their technical Army knowledge.

Other areas of the competition included a rifle qualifications range, a warrior’s task competition with a mystery event and a written test that capped off the competition.

Coleman praised the NCOs and soldiers of this year’s competition.

“The III Corps Best Warrior Competition represents the 'cream of the crop' and is a demonstration of excellence in our profession, the profession of arms,” he said. “These warriors embody the Army Values and have shown absolute professionalism just to get to this point.”

The demanding competition will produce the III Corps NCO and Soldier of the Year who will compete in the Forces Command NCO and Soldier of the Year competition here in July.

“It is a competition and there can only be one winner,” Coleman said. “But all of the soldiers and NCOs who are participating are winners because they’ve had to sacrifice, demonstrate personal courage, train, study and win at the unit level just to get here.”

Coleman said while the competition decided the top NCO and soldier in III Corps, more than just a single NCO and soldier came out as real true winners.

“The true winners in this are the units and the Army,” Coleman said, “because when these soldiers, these warriors, get back to their unit, they will make their units and the Army better with knowledge and experience they’ve gained by competing. I couldn’t be more proud of these young men and women, and the leaders who have helped to get them to this point.”