Photo By Sgt. Chandler Coats | U.S. Army 1st Lt. Molly Murphy, a pediatric nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center in...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Eight top Army soldiers from the Medical Readiness Command, Pacific came to JBLM from their duty stations around the world this week to compete for the title of “best medic” in the MRC,P’s Fiscal Year 2023 Best Medic Competition, hosted by Madigan Army Medical Center on Oct. 25-27, 2022.
The competitors, who spanned the Army’s ranks from sergeant to captain and who all hold the Expert Field Medic Badge, competed in ten events designed to test their soldier skills as well as medical knowledge.
Day one began with an in-brief, written test, and rifle zeroing. Day two started at 5 a.m. and lasted until 10 p.m., including an Army Combat Fitness Test, water survival training, obstacle course, and day and night land navigation. Day three started with a 15-mile ruck march, calisthenics, and a marksmanship competition. Next were the combat maneuver exercises with paintball guns and simulated enemy contact, a combat casualty care and medevac exercise, which was then followed by a 4-mile combat run to complete the competition.
“This competition is a pinnacle exercise for us to put the best soldiers forward so that warfighting mastery becomes contagious across the force,” said Col. Edgar G. Arroyo, Chief of Staff of MRC,P. “We want to deliver the best-trained soldier to the warfighter if the nation calls.”
The two winners of the competition will go on to compete in the Army-wide Best Medic Competition at Fort Polk, Louisiana in January 2023.
“Medical Readiness Command, Pacific has six Direct Report Units, and each DRU had to go through their own selection process to select their best medics to come here,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Fergus J. Joseph, CSM for MRC,P. “Now we’re going to choose the two top medics who will ultimately go compete at the Army’s Best Medic Competition.”
The winners were 1st Lt. Molly Murphy and Capt. Christopher Wunsch. Murphy is a pediatric nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Wunsch is a dentist serving with U.S. Army Dental Health Activity-Japan.
“This was a tough event, and really heavy competition,” said Murphy. "It's good to practice and see exactly what is done on the battlefield, especially getting into more prolonged field care, so that in the deployed setting I'll be more prepared."
Wunsch also said he enjoyed the opportunity to practice in a simulated field environment.
“That’s what these competitions are all about: pushing you until you want to give up, but you just keep going,” Wunsch said. “It's also a great opportunity to work with soldiers and get to know more people within the medical community. It's been a great experience overall.”
Joseph emphasized the importance of Army medical personnel being soldiers first, with a mission to create a medically-ready force through a ready medical force.
"We are not just doctors or medics that are soldiers, but we are soldiers with a mission as a doctor or a medic,” Joseph said. “We can go everywhere our combat arms brothers and sisters go, and we can do our mission in any austere environment. As medics, we have to be technically proficient and tactically competent. This competition allows our soldiers to demonstrate that ability and capability. It doesn’t matter the location; Army medicine will be there because we are Army strong."
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 11.01.2022 13:26 |
| Story ID: | 432264 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 151 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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