Photo By Spc. Jamie Beale | Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division competed in the Marne Best Medic Competition...... read more read more
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Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division competed in the Marne Best Medic Competition on Fort Stewart, Ga. from July 25 to 26.
The purpose of this competition was to select the best primary and alternate teams to send to the annual Command Sgt. Maj. Jack L. Clark Jr. Best Medic Competition in San Antonio from Oct. 24 to 28.
“It’s very important, it’s a team effort, it’s challenging,” said Master Sgt. John Blas, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the event and a medical operations noncommissioned officer for 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion. “It teaches the soldiers that go through it, especially if they go through it as a team, the whole concept of camaraderie.”
The Marne BMC included an army physical fitness test, an obstacle course, a land navigation course, a six-mile ruck march, and a combat medical skills testing lane.
Competitors were required to have either the expert field medical badge or the combat medical badge. Of those that were eligible, only eight from the 3rd Infantry Division, to include Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, competed for the top spot.
The winners, Capt. Andrew Gilker, commander of Company C, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and Staff Sgt. Justin Jackson, a flight paramedic for Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, along with the alternates, Sgt. Kyle Joyner, a critical care flight paramedic for Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade and Capt. Michael Baisa, the medical logistics officer for the 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, will continue to train for the months leading up to the October competition.
The 72-hour continuous event in San Antonio will include areas such as the army physical fitness test, an obstacle course, a leader reaction course, a written examination, M4 and M9 ranges, day- and night-land navigation, a 12-mile ruck march, medical testing lanes and more. Thirty-two teams army-wide will compete to earn the title of best medic.
“What better way to represent your unit than to compete for the best medic,” Baisa said. “It kind of gives you that self-confidence with your peers. I’d definitely do it again.”
This was the first competition on Fort Stewart in more than five years, but Blas plans to continue this selection process on Fort Stewart for years to come and hopes to increase participation through word-of-mouth and advertising.
| Date Taken: | 07.27.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.05.2017 15:58 |
| Story ID: | 240138 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 61 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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