Augusta resident competes in Best Warrior Competition

Army Reserve Medical Command
Story by Lt. Col. Michele Sutak

Date: 02.24.2014
Posted: 02.24.2014 23:59
News ID: 121077
Augusta resident competes in Best Warrior Competition

HELENA, Mont. - Spc. Mai Quyen Thi Dang, a dental/laboratory specialist with the 7303rd Medical Training Support Battalion in Fort Gordon, Ga., is competing in the Army Reserve Medical Command’s prestigious Best Warrior Competition in Helena, Mont., Feb. 24–27, 2014.

“I chose to compete in the Best Warrior Competition because I am interested in the challenges that it offers. This will give me a perfect opportunity to grow as a soldier,” said Dang.

She is one of only 13 soldiers of ARMEDCOM warriors to be selected to compete for this honor.

Dang, 24, a native of Vietnam and an Augusta resident, is representing the Medical Readiness and Training Command, San Antonia, Texas, and is currently a full-time biochemistry student at Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Ga.

The Best Warrior Competition was developed by retired Sgt. Maj. of the Army Jack Tilley in 2002, testing soldier’s physical endurance, military knowledge, and mental perseverance. The competition is an opportunity for warriors to highlight their military skills in a competitive environment.

The grueling four day event competition taxes each soldier mentally and physically. It includes a timed written exam, physical fitness test, and a number of mentally and physically challenging exercises including day land navigation, urban orienteering courses, road march, weapons qualification on rifles and pistols, hand-to-hand combative tournament, tactical combat causally care, and mystery events

Dang began the competition at unit level, rising to command level and continuing on to higher command intended to select the noncommissioned officer and junior enlisted Soldier of the Year for ARMEDCOM. The winner advances to train and prepare through U.S. Army Reserve Command and upon winning will go on to represent the Army Reserve Command to the Army wide Best Warrior Competition to be held later in the year.

The Army Reserve Medical Command has been represented at the top Army event in 2009 by Staff Sgt. Aaron Butler, a medical logistics noncommissioned officer from Three Forks, Mont., at the Department of the Army-level competition.