Photo By Sgt. Mark Cloutier | Sgt. Dariusz Krzywonos, field artillery surveyor/meteorological crewmember,...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – At the end of a four-day competition, during which nine noncommissioned officers battled for the title of U.S. Army Forces Command Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, a Joint Base Lewis-McChord field artillery NCO emerged as the face of FORSCOM's finest – that’s the echo of what transpired at Fort Bragg, N.C., this past July 7-13.
Since that time, the 6-foot-6-inch, 43-year-old FORSCOM NCO of the Year, Sgt. Dariusz Krzywonos, has maintained his steady and disciplined training regiment which has brought him to the mother of all Army NCO of the Year battles - the Army Best Warrior Competition.
From Oct. 15-18, Krzywonos, a field artillery surveyor/meteorological supervisor, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Stryker), 2nd Infantry Division, will face off in Washington, D.C., against 12 other NCOs who’ve also earned their right to fight, scrap, shoot, move and communicate their way to the coveted title of the Army’s Best Warrior for 2012. For a chance at victory, Krzywonos has had to amp up his training more than ever.
“For a man who just pinned his sergeant stripes in February of this year, he’s been turning heads, opening eyes and dropping jaws all over the place since he got into this race,” said Staff Sgt. Joseph Jamison, Krzywonos’ sponsor, and also a field artillery surveyor/meteorological supervisor. “After he did so well at his E-5 board, he was pulled to represent 4th Brigade in the I Corps NCO of the year challenge – and he just kept going.”
From the 4th Brigade challenge to his FORSCOM win, Krzywonos had no more free time during his work day to prepare for next level of competition than the average soldier would, but in preparation for the Army’s final annual NCO challenge, his command has given him an empty calendar to fill with training and studying of his own design. With that kind of support he said he’s even more determined to make the most of his time; Krzywonos had to come up with a schedule fitting for the challenge.
“After winning at the FORSCOM level, sergeants major of the board let me know in no uncertain terms that the game changes sharply starting now,” said Krzywonos. “So I have been working longer and harder then ever - at the same things I had already been doing before; I have maintained a very strict daily schedule to be sure that all necessary disciplines are covered as often as possible.”
Krzywonos works out and studies for the competition six days a week. When the alarm clock sounds at 4:45 a.m., he’s ready to go. He’s out of bed at the first sound – no messing with the snooze button – and everything he’ll need for the day has already been set out the night before.
Krzywonos said his wife, Emi, has the coffee pot set to deliver exactly two cups of fresh coffee just before the alarm goes off.
“Emi has been a great supporter since I joined the Army,” said Krzywonos. “She’s always up with me to pack my lunchbox, to give me a kiss goodbye - then I’m off to my Army day.”
As krzywonos starts his Jeep, he is already reciting the NCO Creed.
“This puts me in the right frame of mind and helps keep me on track throughout the day” said Krzywonos. “I follow this with the Soldiers Creed, then I sing the Army Song, then the First Corps Song. By the time I hit the highway I’ve gone through all this and I’m ready for the Army Study Guide tape review.”
Just more than a year ago, Krzywonos copied from the Internet, the 300-plus pages of the Army Study Guide. He then spoke the entire guide onto microcassette tapes. He then created a very detailed outline showing which portion of the guide is on which tape.
“I have a little chart that shows me which part of the study guide I studied last and which part I need to study next,” said Krzywonos. “The 35-minute drive to and from work each day allows me to listen to at least four chapters of the guide each day … I want to perform well and present well as someone who has expended every effort in preparing one’s self. ”
Krzywonos has been studying the guide this way continuously since September 2011 when he began studying for the promotion board and his battalion’s Soldier of the Year Board.
As Krzywonos arrives at one of the base gyms, the microcassettes are packed away as he shifts gears to physical conditioning. After about 30 minutes stretching and warming up, he heads to the track for one and a half hours of running and sprinting.
“I run 4-5 times each week,” said Krzywonos. “My goal is to be able to run the two miles in less than 12 minutes but the seconds just don’t seem to come off quickly enough any more. My legs are well conditioned, my breathing is good and I’m down to 197 lbs. from the 204 lbs. that I was carrying at the FORSCOM event. And that’s good because I feel more energized but it’s still been a challenge to shave seconds off here and there.”
Krzywonos has had to get creative when it comes to whittling away at his run time.
“Each week I try to break two of my records from the previous week – either in the 400 meter or 800 meter laps, or else in the two or three mile runs,” said Krzywonos. “As long as I break at least two of those records from the week prior, then I’m satisfied that I’m still making progress.”
After running, Krzywonos heads for a shower and a hot breakfast as he focuses on the rest of the day’s schedule. After breakfast he briefly checks in with his unit leadership before starting the next leg of the day’s training.
“The day really isn’t as long as it seems so I work very hard to make every minute count,” said Krzywonos. “I try to spend 2-3 hours before lunch working at the education center on the Structured Self Development course that I’m enrolled in.”
After exercising his mind for a few hours, it’s back to the gym (every other day) for a lunchtime workout with free-weights.
“I’d personally like to gain a little more muscle, but it effects my speed and slows me down some, which, in turn, requires more effort to propel myself during the run portion of the competition,” said Krzywonos. “So I use roughly 60 percent of normal workout weights to help keep me leaned out and fast as possible. Also, because I need to concentrate on upper body strength overall, I will work the same muscle groups each time: chest; biceps; triceps; shoulders and abdominals. ”
Straight from the gym, Krzywonos eats his home-boxed lunch on the fly as he heads to one of the base libraries for a quiet place to dive back into his pre-recorded Army study guide for a few hours.
“About 80 percent of the time I spend on the study guide is simply to maintain what I’ve already assimilated for information,” said Krzywonos. “I don’t have all that many years in the Army so I’m trying to broaden my knowledge by digging deeper into the sections. It is somewhat tough going because there is only so much time before the competition.
On top of all this, Krzywonos still has a few more hours to capitalize on before its time to head home. He must continuously improvise and adapt the day’s schedule in order to include certain training opportunities that suddenly become available.
“I try to go to the range twice a week – whenever the opportunity is there,” said Krzywonos. “Each time I go to the range I take a different weapon so that I‘m forced to use all of my marksmanship skills.
“I have also intensified my effort once or twice each week to assemble and disassemble the weapons that I’ll be seeing at the event. At times when I don’t have the actual weapons to work with, I’ll go over the assembly, disassembly, setting headspace and timing in my mind; my time spent in the Marine Corps has certainly helped me with my knowledge in the area of weapons and marksmanship.”
At 5:30 in the evening, Krzywonos is finally home – but just for an hour’s rest. Then it’s out the door to for private combative lessons from a former Army officer who now trains individual soldiers for tournaments. Krzywonos had a scare in August when he was injured during one of these sessions.
“As I was attempting to repel my opponents attack, my knee had other ideas when faced with the other fighter’s 235 pounds of fury – the knee popped out and then back in, accompanied by a great deal of audio effects; it was quite scary,” said Krzywonos. “Training was a bit tenuous for awhile, but I think things are ready to go now – we’ll see.”
At long last, Krzywonos is able to call it a day – at nearly 8 p.m.
Regarding the Army Best Warrior Competition, Krzywonos said he believes that some of the toughest parts of the year’s worth of NCO competitions was behind him as soon as he left the battalion level.
“I’ve found so far that the complexity of the questions in the boardrooms have been just about the same overall, except that the brigade level questions were, I think, the toughest,” said Krzywonos. “There is also this certain psychology of the board - going up in front of my own battalion’s first sergeants was the most tense for me because I was a known entity there, and I wanted to present myself as best as I could in order to sustain a good reputation with those who know me and who I work directly for. At the other boards I’m going up in front of people I have never seen before, so some of that psychological pressure seems to lift.”
Win or lose, soon after Krzywonos returns from the competition he will likely see his first combat deployment as his unit is scheduled to depart for Afghanistan later this year. They will be on a mission to train and prepare the local forces to take over security in the region.
“With the war drawing down, this may be my last chance to deploy – so I’m looking forward to it,” said Krzywonos. “I believe that going to combat is a price that every soldier should be willing to pay for the opportunity to wear this uniform. I just know that somehow I will feel an even deeper sense of pride when I put mine on once I have returned.”
| Date Taken: | 10.18.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 10.23.2012 20:03 |
| Story ID: | 96652 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 267 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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