Photo By Sgt. Adam L. Mathis | Spc. Julie Dao of Lake Forest, Calif., holds her opponent, Spc. Timothy Andariese of...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – It was a war of attrition. That’s how one of the competitors described the three days of competition to become First Army’s 2012 Best Warrior of the Year. The candidates for Best Soldier of the Year and Best Non-commissioned Officer of the Year, assembled and disassembled weapons, marched, fired a variety of weapons, navigated by day and night and other events. Watching during all of this were judges, looking not only for technical proficiency, but motivation to be the best. Surviving the war of attrition didn’t mean standing out, as the one competitor described it, it meant making fewer mistakes than your opponents.
The intensity of the competition held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord from May 15 to 18 was designed to promote the interests of First Army. The 189th Infantry Brigade’s Command Sgt. Maj., Wilbert Engram of Warner Robins, Ga., volunteered to host the event at JBLM. He believed the 189th could put on a challenging competition that would reveal the best warriors for First Army.
“I think that the way we put this together it would definitely you know give First Army a great representative at the [Forces Command] competition,” said Engram.
“It was really rough, I mean, at times,” said Spc. Julie Dao of Lake Forest, Calif., the winner of the Best Soldier of the Year award. “You just got to keep pushing yourself. You always want to give up, but you can’t let everyone down; you’ve got a lot of eyes on you, so you just got to make sure to keep pushing through the pain and at least finish the competition the best you possibly can.”
Dao had not expected to make it to the First Army level. At the lower levels, she had competed against people whom she thought were more qualified to win the honor. Her strategy at this level was to ignore her competitor and focus on doing the best she could and hope it was good enough.
“If it’s something that you just kind of coast along, and you’re not working for anything, there’s really no point,” said Dao. “You only have one life, so I’m young right now, I’m going to try to physically push myself constantly.”
That is also what Staff Sgt. James Severin of Griffin, Ga., did to win the Non-Commissioned Officer of Year award. Severin had competed at the First Army level last year and heard he only lost by a few points.
“This is what happens when you slack off,” said Severin.
Instead, Severin prepared won this competition by overpreparing.
“For any sort of competition like that, I like to overprepare for it,” said Severin. “Because that’s how I gain confidence, if I sit there and be like, ‘Look I’ve done this like 19 times,’ I’ve got it. That’s where I get my confidence from.”
| Date Taken: | 05.18.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.21.2012 14:14 |
| Story ID: | 88744 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 177 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Picking the Best: Soldiers compete to represent First Army, by SGT Adam L. Mathis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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