JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas—In a grueling three-day competition, 25 U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence Soldiers strived to earn the titles of Best Medic, Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, Soldier of the Year and Best Squad from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, 2026.
The 2026 MEDCoE Best Medic team members are Cpt. Zachary Short and Staff Sgt. Alexander Morgan, from the 232d Medical Battalion and 264th Medical Battalion, respectively. The Noncommissioned Officer of the Year and Best Squad team leader is Staff Sgt. Thomas Asher from the 264th Medical Battalion, and the Soldier of the Year is Spc. Isaiah Huber from the 32nd Medical Brigade Training Support Company. In addition to Asher and Huber, Sgt. Timothy Weaver, Spc. Timond Brown and Spc. Justin Delucca, all from the 32nd Medical Brigade Training Support Company, will represent MEDCoE at the next Best Squad Competition.
During his remarks at the ceremony, Command Sgt. Maj. Jesus Gonzalez, MEDCoE command sergeant major, praised the competitors for their skill, their grit and their attitude during the events.
“You trained hard and overcame obstacles. You demonstrated strength, discipline and the character of a true warrior.”
The competition consisted of a physical fitness assessment, obstacle course and litter obstacle course, combat water survival, warrior tasks and battle drills, health service support lanes, mass casualty care, prolonged field care, day and night land navigation, a 12-mile ruck march, an oral board and written test, a stress-shoot and mystery event. During the competition, competitors split into two tracks, one for Best Medic and the other for Best Squad and came together for the common events.
Col. Aristotle Vaseliades, MEDCoE chief of staff, thanked the staff and cadre who made the competition happen, and reminded everyone that training foundational skills to excellence is what MEDCoE does every day.
“When I think of the best of the best, I think of excellence. I like to use Aristotle’s quote, when you repeatedly do excellence, it’s not an act, but a habit,” said Vaseliades. “I look at some of the things we put you through—foundational skills required of every Soldier in the Army Medical Department… and those foundational skills start here at the CoE [Center of Excellence]. Whether you’re training, teaching the basic officer course, AIT [Advanced Individual Training], no matter what it is, you’re either setting that corner foundation of excellence, or you’re adding to it.”
Short and Morgan will go on to represent MEDCoE in the U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jack L. Clark, Jr. Best Medic Competition in February 2027. The upcoming competition will include the Army National Guard, Army Reserves, and all active Army divisions, separate brigades and Special Forces.
Asher, Weaver, Huber, Brown and Delucca will compete at the second annual U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command’s Best Squad Competition in the spring of 2027. Last year, our squad, including Huber, won the Training and Doctrine Command Best Squad Competition, but in the T2COM competition in May 2026, they took second place. The goal is to represent T2COM at the U.S. Army Best Squad Competition in 2027.
MEDCoE is the Army Medicine proponent responsible for envisioning and designing responsive Army Medicine capabilities and structure that support the fielded force and the future force. MEDCoE is also one of 10 Centers of Excellence aligned under the U.S. Army Combined Arms Command. To learn more about MEDCoE visit https://medcoe.army.mil/