Subscribe
Over the course of 72 hours, two Iron Soldiers underwent a rigorous and realistic competition in which they made it out on top against their peers from all over the world.
Every year, for the last two decades, the Army has held the Best Medic Competition, where two-Soldier teams stress their bodies and their brains to earn the title as the Army’s best medics and bring pride to their unit.
This year, 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery’s Staff Sgt. Cory Glasgow, a native of Cave Junction, Oregon, and Staff Sgt. Branden Mettura, a Kerrville, Texas, native assigned to 47th Brigade Support Battalion, traveled to Camp Bullis, Texas, and returned to fill 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, “Strike First,” 1st Armored Division with honor to have this year’s best medics in their ranks.
The competition consisted of basic Soldier skills such as physical fitness, marksmanship, land navigation, a ruck march and leadership events. This year, however, was a bit different from the previous years.
This year’s competition included the Army Combat Fitness Test, which will soon be incorporated in the Army as the new standard to test a Soldier’s physical ability and includes a strength deadlift, a power throw, release push-ups, a sprint-drag carry, leg tucks and a 2-mile run.
For Glasgow, who has participated in four best medic competitions throughout his career, this competition was more technical on medical skills.
“The past competitions have been more physical – a lot more rucking and more physical tasks during the lanes – but this one was more prolonged field care and knowing how to do your medical skills over eight hours on patient care,” Glasgow said.
Like the ACFT, PFC is also a new concept in the Army, Mettura said. Medics must be able to take care of injured Soldiers for longer periods due to being in battle with more near-peer adversaries who have equal air control to the United States. This means evacuations cannot happen within the hour, but may take anywhere from eight to many more hours before removing the injured from the battlefield.
Glasgow went even further to explain how the competition was great training for his future deployments, which gave him abundant skills on how to take care of injured Soldiers for more than eight hours. These skills gained are also ones that he is excited to share with his Soldiers to ensure they all understand the fundamentals in taking care of patients for longer periods.
In all of the competition’s events, whether they were new or old concepts, both medics kept each other going mentally and physically, and they both were overly excited to win this year’s competition.
“I never quit,” said Glasgow. “I hate to lose, so I had to keep pushing myself and keep pushing my partner.”
“It was complete shock,” said Mettura. “We had joked that we were top 10 for sure and, then, it suddenly became top five. Then, we jokingly said that we were going to podium and, after they named third and second place, we definitely didn’t think we’d be first.”
However, Glasgow and Mettura earned the title of the 2018 Army’s Best Medic Competition’s winner leaving their families very proud of them and their hard work.
“They’re super shocked,” said Mettura about his wife and two children. “They know the hard work that we put in, and they’re just happy to see that work pay off.”
“My wife’s happy because I don’t have to go to anymore competitions,” said Glasgow jokingly. “My mom was really happy for me.”
| Date Taken: | 10.03.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 12.31.2018 23:57 |
| Story ID: | 306026 |
| Location: | EL PASO, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 1st AD medics discuss winning Army Best Medic Competition, by SSG Felicia Jagdatt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT