Photo By Staff Sgt. Brandon Julson | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Cory Cody, 211th Engineer Company, South Dakota Army National...... read more read more
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The South Dakota Army National Guard selected six enlisted Soldiers and seven non-commissioned officers to compete in the state’s Best Warrior Competition in Rapid City and Sturgis, Sept. 7-9, to identify the next Soldier and Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year, respectively.
After the three-day competition, Staff Sgt. Cory Cody, of White Owl, and a member with the 211th Engineer Company, was named the SDARNG’s Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year. Pfc. Nicholas Rios, of Rapid City, and a member with the Headquarters Company, 109th Regional Support Group, was named the SDARNG Soldier of the Year.
“The significance of this Best Warrior Competition is because of the dynamic world that we live in today,” said State Command Sgt. Maj. James Hoekman, the SDNG’s senior enlisted leader. “We are now changing our philosophy on how we fight and it’s going to be a more near-peer enemy and with that, brings demands of more individual training for our Soldiers.
“This competition is based on that individual posture where they’re doing individual training on warrior tasks, life-saving tasks, CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and/or explosive) tasks, and weapons qualification and familiarization – all the basic war-tasks needed for an individual Soldier to protect themselves in combat.”
The BWC challenges the competitors academically, technically, physically and mentally.
“I feel very proud of myself,” said Rios. “I represented my unit at the highest standard possible and made my family proud as well.”
This year’s competition was changed to mirror the intensity that the Soldiers may face at the regional and national level competitions. The timing of the state competition was also changed from April 2019 to September 2018 to give the winner’s more time to train and prepare for the regional competition next spring.
“Every year, we’ve gotten a little bit better and we go to these different competitions [regionals and nationals] and we take the best practices that we see there and bring them back to our state competition,” said Hoekman. “Bailey Ruff won nationals last year for Soldier of the Year and it shows our Soldiers in South Dakota that they can compete with anybody in the nation – in the National Guard, the Reserve or in the active Army component – and that they can win against that competition.”
Cody and Rios will advance to the Region 6 Best Warrior Competition scheduled to be held in North Dakota, spring 2019, where they’ll face competitors from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
At regionals, they will be tested on a variety of skill sets, which can include warrior tasks and battle drills, written essays, uniforms and appearance, drill and ceremony, land navigation and map reading, first aid, weapon systems, physical fitness and general Army knowledge.
“It is extremely humbling to be chosen to represent each and every NCO in the state,” said Cody. “This is a task I am more than willing to take on for the South Dakota National Guard the best I can.”
The NCO of the Year runner-up/alternate was Sgt. Daniel Ward, 129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, and the Soldier of the Year runner-up/alternate was Spc. Rylie Fleckenstein, Alpha Battery, 1/147th Field Artillery Battalion.
The competition and the training involved to prepare for it provides the competitors not only with the opportunity to improve themselves, but to improve their peers and subordinates as well.
“The competition was definitely difficult; there’s a wide variety of subjects and physical activities and it certainly pushes a Soldier to the limits and hopefully beyond the limits that they’ve already set for themselves,” said Cody. “As an NCO, you try to take experiences and learning points from any event that you go to in the military and that allows you to take that knowledge and improve the way that you train your Soldiers.”
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2018 12:41 |
| Story ID: | 292818 |
| Location: | RAPID CITY, SD, US |
| Web Views: | 284 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, SD Army National Guard names Soldier, NCO of the Year, by SFC Austin Pearce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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