The 2020 Army Reserve Best Warrior Competition continued with an improvised explosive device detection lane, a military police exercise, land navigation, and an M4 live-fire night shoot.
Staff Sgt. Benjamin L. Latham, a Sapper-qualified combat engineer from Joliet, Illinois, won the title of Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, and Spc. Stanley T. Thompson, an indirect fire infantryman from Sacramento, California, won in the category of Soldier of the Year for the 2020 U.S. Army Reserve Best Warrior Competition.
A young Soldier from Sacramento, California, with ambitions of becoming a drill sergeant won the title of Soldier of the Year in the 2020 U.S. Army Reserve Best Warrior Competition, with winners announced at a ceremony Sept. 10.
Staff Sgt. Benjamin Latham rose from his chair on a cool, overcast September afternoon, and stood among his peers and superiors as they showered him in applause. As his teammates from the notorious “Team 7” chanted their trademark “Luck-y! Luck-y! Luck-y!” Latham approached the stage at the outdoor ceremony for the third time in rapid succession.
Senior Drill Sergeant, Thomas Gardner of the 832nd, C Company in Fort Lee Virginia, explains the necessity of joining the Army as a teenager and what has kept him going strong for 12 years and counting.