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JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq— One soldier and one non-commissioned officer with both the 3rd Sustainment Brigade and the 224th Sustainment Brigade competed in the 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) NCO/Soldier of the Quarter challenge Dec. 4 at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
Spc. Susan Avina, a quartermaster and chemical equipment repair specialist with the 540th Quartermaster Company, 13th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion, 3rd Sust. Bde., 103rd ESC, and a Sheboygan, Wis., native, beat Spc. Luvern Wheller with the 224th Sust. Bde. in the Soldier of the Quarter competition.
Sgt. Daniel Wisckol, brigade transportation manager with the 224th Sust. Bde., and a Menlo Park, Calif., native, beat Sgt. Jumon Mathis with the 3rd Sust. Bde., in the NCO of the Quarter competition.
All the soldiers won competitions at the company, battalion and brigade levels before competing at the ESC level. This competition differed in several ways from previous NCO/SOQ competitions held at JBB.
“What we did differently from what the 13th [ESC] did and from our first event in September is that we added an Army Physical Fitness Test, weapons qualification, various warrior tasks, a timed written essay and a mystery task to the standard board,” said Command Sgt. Maj. LeRoy Haugland, senior enlisted leader of the 103rd ESC, and a Cresco, Iowa, native. “The reason we did that is to level the playing field. Everyone is taking the APFT at the same time with the same conditions and the same graders. Same with weapons qualification and the essay.”
Creating a level playing field for competitors by standardizing as many events as possible was an over-arching goal for the command to really test the soldiers’ skills.
“I would have liked to have had an extra day to add some night tasks and a ruck march to further test them physically and mentally, because that’s where we really find out who shines and who is the best of the best,” said Haugland.
Even with only one day of competition, the soldiers were tested extensively. Their day began before dawn with the APFT, followed by the boards for the rest of the morning.
“We kept it going all day,” added Haugland. “One thing rolled right into another into another.”
After lunch, the competitors went to the firing range in the Special Forces compound. The competition then moved to the east gym for a series of timed warrior tasks such as land navigation, radio communications and a medical lane.
“I had to think most on the commo lane,” said Avina. “I had no experience with it.”
The goal of this challenge was to avoid memorization and regurgitation of facts, and to test the Soldiers by making them react to the unexpected, according to Haugland.
“It was just an awesome competition because it made you think in new ways,” said Wisckol. “I work at a desk job for most of my duties as a soldier and this gets me outside in the field.”
This event was well planned and thought out given the available resources, according to both the organizers and the participants. Haugland and the 103rd ESC had been planning this event since before the last board in September, with a new vision that encompassed both a more level playing field and a more challenging competition.
“As we saw the number of sustainment brigades reduced in conjunction with the responsible drawdown of forces, it allowed us to ramp up the competition, given the time we would have used if more soldiers had been participating,” said Haugland.
These factors led to a successful and challenging NCO/SOQ event for the 103rd ESC at JBB.
“It feels awesome to win,” said Wisckol. “It’s cool knowing you gave it your best shot and still came out on top even with such good competition.”
Haugland said it is “quite a big deal” to be named Soldier of the Quarter within a general officer command such as the 103rd ESC.
The competitors agreed that they felt both nervous and excited going into the events and feel relieved that they are over and are generally satisfied with their performances.
“There were events where I was very proud of myself and others that I can improve upon before moving to the next level,” said Avina. “Winning is bittersweet because I told God I’d be thankful if I won and thankful if I didn’t win so I could focus on other things besides preparing for the next level of competition.”
Both Avina and Wisckol encouraged other soldiers to continue to test themselves because learning is an ongoing process and junior enlisted soldiers are the military’s future leaders.
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2010 06:46 |
| Story ID: | 62258 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, NCO/Soldier of the Quarter, by SFC Zane Craig, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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