Fort McCoy communicators take some top honors at Army Materiel Command David G. Harris competition

Photo By Christopher Hanson | Participants in a Community Leader Engagement visit the History Center on March 21, 2022, at the Commemorative Area at Fort McCoy, Wis. More than a dozen community leaders from Tomah, Sparta, Black River Falls, La Crosse, and other nearby municipalities gathered at Fort McCoy to see the post’s mission first-hand. During their visit, the community leaders received a driving tour of the installation and made stops at the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility on South Post, Fort McCoy Commemorative Area, Fort McCoy Simulations Training Complex in the 200 block on the cantonment area, Garrison Headquarters, and dining facility 1362 where they received a lunch. (U.S. Army Photo by Christopher Hanson, Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

03.21.2023

Courtesy Story

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

After doing well and earning top honors earlier in the year in the 2022 Army Installation Management Command Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Communications Awards Competition, several of the same Fort McCoy communicators followed suit after advancing for competition in the 2022 Army Materiel Command David G. Harris Public Affairs Competition.

First, Audiovisual Production Specialist Greg Mason with the Fort McCoy Multimedia-Visual Information Office earned first place and the title as the 2022 Army Materiel Command Clark Taylor Civilian Videographer of the Year Layout and Design in Category F of the competition.

For this category, Mason had to submit four video products, which included one b-roll video, one video story, and two products of the candidate’s choice, which could be a video story, multimedia product, video spot, or one video from a video series.

Mason also earned one other award in a special category. He earned second place in Broadcast Category C, Social Media/Multimedia Video, for his production of the Fort McCoy “Behind the Triad” video with Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Messenger at the Fort McCoy Wastewater Treatment Facility.

Mason said he was thankful to be recognized for his work.

“I’m very grateful to be recognized as one of best videographers in the Army among my peers,” Mason said. “The Behind the Triad video series with Colonel Messenger has been fun to make, and I’m glad it’s being acknowledged by Installation Management Command and Army Materiel Command as a quality product.”

Next, in the writing competition, Public Affairs Specialist Scott T. Sturkol, editor of The Real McCoy newspaper, earned first place and the title of 2022 Army Material Command Moss-Holland Civilian Writer of the Year. This award included the judging of five stories — one information story, one feature story, and three stories of the candidate’s choice.

The headlines of the stories Sturkol submitted included:

— Medal of Honor Man: Stumpf remembered as mentor, more, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/421771/medal-honor-man-stumpf-remembered-mentor-more

— Special 2022 archaeological survey at Fort McCoy focuses on ‘tent’ time between world wars, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/428130/special-2022-archaeological-survey-fort-mccoy-focuses-tent-time-between-world-wars

— Recalling Camp McCoy: One World War II vet’s memories of service at post in 1940s, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/433099/recalling-camp-mccoy-one-world-war-ii-vets-memories-service-post-1940s

— Wisconsin Guard UH-60 Soldiers hold live-hoist, medical-evacuation training at Fort McCoy, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/423466/wisconsin-guard-uh-60-soldiers-hold-live-hoist-medical-evacuation-training-fort-mccoy

— Fort McCoy, Ho-Chunk Nation renew agreement during special ceremony, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/421209/fort-mccoy-ho-chunk-nation-renew-agreement-during-special-ceremony

Sturkol also earned a first-place award in photography competition. He earned first place in Category C, Training Documentation Photograph, of a photo of cold-water immersion training. A photo that also happened to be selected by the Army as one of 60 Photos of the Year for 2022.

Sturkol has been with the newspaper and the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office since December 2013. This is his first Civilian Writer of the Year award and fifth Army Materiel Command Award in the last three years.

“I was really amazed and appreciative to earn this award,” Sturkol said. “Everything I do, as a writer, is possible because of the people I serve in the community, and it’s their stories we tell. I thank everyone who’s allowed me the opportunity to tell their story.”

In the community relations portion of the competition, Public Affairs Specialist Kaleen Holliday, formerly with the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office and now with the 88th Readiness Division Public Affairs Office, was recognized in Category L, earning third place for the 2023 Army Materiel Command Kathy Canham-Ross Award of Distinction.

The Kathy Canham-Ross Award recognizes the products that best exemplify excellence in community engagement contributions. The award is named for Kathy Canham-Ross, a distinguished director of OCPA-Los Angeles who set an outstanding example to emulate throughout her 30 years as a public affairs officer. Holliday earned first place for the award for Army Installation Management Command.

The award placement for Holliday is drawn from her leadership in organizing and serving as the action officer for the 2022 Fort McCoy Armed Forces Day Open House — the first open house held on post since 2019. The award also recognizes the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office for the work in the same event.

Col. James Scott Rawlinson, Army Materiel Command’s director of public and Congressional affairs, gave praise to the winners in the awards message sent out to the command on March 6.

“We invited participants from across the Army Materiel Command enterprise to submit entries for the 2022 David G. Harris Public Affairs Competition,” he said. “Our judges reviewed over 90 submissions and selected 15 winners to move on to the Army’s Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware competition. This was by no means an easy task to undertake since the quality of submissions continues to improve from year-to-year.

“After a considerable amount of review, please join me in congratulating all the winners in this year’s competition,” Rawlinson said. “We appreciate your hard work and your contributions in telling and conveying the Army and AMC story. While many of the categories were reduced for the Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware competition, we appreciate you taking the opportunity to showcase your best work and submit your products for consideration at the AMC-level for the Dave Harris competition. … Best of luck in the next phase of the competition. Again, congratulations to all the winners and participants of this year’s contest. I’m grateful to everyone for taking the time to participate.”

Mason, Sturkol, and Holliday are all now competing at the Army level for the Army Clark Taylor Civilian Videographer of the Year Layout and Design, the Army Moss-Taylor Civilian Writer of the Year, and the Army-level Kathy Canham-Ross Award of Distinction. If they win at that level, they will then compete at the Department of Defense level for the Thomas Jefferson awards. Competition results will be available later in the year.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.

(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.)

• Date Taken: 03.21.2023
• Date Posted: 03.21.2023 18:00
• Story ID: 440884
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US