‘Docs’ shine at 2016 Best Medic Competition

Photo By Winifred Brown | Spc. Mark Macik, assigned to 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, works on a simulated casualty during the 2016 Best Medic Competition at Fort Bliss July 7, 2016. (Photo by Wendy Brown, Fort Bliss Bugle)  

EL PASO, TX, UNITED STATES

08.25.2016

Story by Winifred Brown  

Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office

By Wendy Brown
Fort Bliss Bugle Editor

There were times in the 2016 Best Medic Competition when Sgt. Joshua Candia thought it seemed impossible to keep going, but he did anyway.
“Every time it seems like you take that last step and you think, ‘I only got 10 more in me,’ and you keep walking and you keep going,” said Candia, a medic assigned to 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. “It definitely pushes your limit.”
Not only did Candia keep going, he and his team partner Sgt. William Speede, a medic assigned to 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st BCT, 1st AD, placed first in the competition that took place here and McGregor Range, New Mexico, July 6 through 8. They will represent 1st AD at the Command Sgt. Maj. Jack L. Clark, Jr., Army Best Medic Competition at Camp Bullis in San Antonio Oct. 28-30.
Eight Soldiers making up four teams participated, and the list of the competition’s events explains how physically and mentally challenging it was to complete, said Master Sgt. Michael Pini, chief of 1st AD medical plans and operations and organizer of the event.
In three days, the Soldiers took a functional fitness test in gear, ruck marched 12 miles through Franklin Mountain State Park, completed Army warrior tasks under realistic combat scenarios, orienteered over 8 miles of terrain, completed a 3½-mile buddy run and then took a M4 and M9 shooting test under stress, completed a 100-question written exam, displayed their suturing skills, took another physical fitness test in Army combat uniforms and participated in a simulated call-for-fire exercise, Pini said.
Organizers designed all the tasks to mimic and replicate similar tasks medics would perform in combat operations in an austere environment, Pini said.
Temperatures reached between 100 and 102 degrees each day, and staying hydrated was a big priority. Speede said he drank between six to eight quarts of water each day.
“It was definitely an intense competition,” Speede said. “I mean, everyone else put up a really good fight throughout it, but it was definitely grueling physically and mentally. The hardest part was hiking the Franklin Mountains.”
Spc. Mark Macik, assigned to 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, and his team partner Pfc. Severo Rodriguez, 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 2nd BCT, 1st AD, said they look forward to coming back next year.
“The hardest part was definitely how fast everything came, how fast the events were right after each other and the lack of being able to rest and recuperate and rehydrate in between each event,” Macik said. “I drank at least two Camelbacks a day.”
Rodriguez said although the event was strenuous, he had fun, and he thanks Macik and the other competitors for pushing him.
Maj. Gen. Pat White, commanding general, 1st AD and Fort Bliss, attended the competition’s awards ceremony at 1st AD Headquarters Friday with Command Sgt. Maj. Danny Day, senior enlisted adviser, 1st AD and Fort Bliss. Both congratulated the winners and all the competitors for a job well done.
White said they were better Soldiers for participating and encouraged Soldiers to enter competitions and win.
“If you’re the best and you do everything you can to be the best, give 110 percent, you’ll win every competition the Army’s got,” White said. “It doesn’t take any special training to do that. If you can knock down 40 of 40 on the range and then you can ruck 12 and then come back and take a quick break, take a knee, face outward, drink some water and get up and ruck another 3½, shoot an M9 … it doesn’t matter what kind of competition the Army gives us, we’re going to win it.”

• Date Taken: 08.25.2016
• Date Posted: 08.25.2016 15:50
• Story ID: 208187
• Location: EL PASO, TX, US