Courtesy Photo | Staff Sgt. Christopher Upshaw, 181st Multi-Functional Training Brigade, swims in the...... read more read more
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BY SGT. MICHAEL A. PARKER
First Army Division West
First Army Division West named Staff Sgt. Christopher Upshaw as the Division West Best Warrior.
The 2020 Division Best Warrior Competition was held at Fort Hood, Texas, from Feb. 25-28. The competitors were nine noncommissioned officers from every brigade within Division West from all across the United States.
Upshaw is a horizontal construction observer-coach/trainer (OC/T) with the 181st Multi-Functional Training Brigade at Fort McCoy.
Staff Sgt. Jonathan Broome took home the prize of runner up in the competition. Broome is an armored reconnaissance OC/T with the 5th Armored Brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas.
The 120th Infantry Brigade planned and hosted the 2020 competition.
Master Sgt. Bradley Cloutier, the 120th Infantry Brigade’s S3 senior operations sergeant said he designed the four-day competition to be more physically and mentally demanding than any previous Best Warrior competition the division has conducted.
“With guidance from the division command sergeant major, I wanted this competition to be a great stepping point to give the winners of this year’s competition the best chance of winning at the First Army level and above,” Cloutier said.
All nine of the Best Warrior competitors were challenged with 11 different events, Cloutier said.
Each was designed to challenge the competitors physically and mentally. The events included a stress marksmanship shooting test; a written test and essay; and a 12-mile, day-and-night land navigation course.
The competitors began the competition with the new Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT. After the ACFT, the Best Warrior candidates completed a M4 carbine and M9 pistol weapons-qualification event.
With their weapons sighted in, the competitors completed the stress shooting event. The shooting event forced the candidates to engage 25-meter targets with their M4 and M9 weapon systems after running half a mile, moving sandbags 50 meters, and moving a 180-pound medical mannequin more than 100 meters.
Command Sgt. Maj. John McDwyer, the First Army Division West command sergeant major, said he wanted a marksmanship test that would effectively test the Soldiers’ ability to engage targets in a physically stressful environment.
“When Division West selects a best warrior, we want to make sure they accurately reflect the professionalism and experience First Army Division West has to offer,” McDwyer said. “We are an organization that prides itself on realistic training, especially since our main purpose in Division West is to train and validate National Guard and Reserve units to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America.”
McDwyer added, “When we hand out the title of First in the West, we want other Soldiers from across the Army to know they are actually the Best in the West.”
Most of the competitors said the land-navigation event was the hardest event because the land-navigation course has difficult terrain, they were required to carry a 40-pound rucksack at least 12 miles, and they had to complete four different situational training exercise lanes, or STX lanes. The STX lanes were located at different points across the 12-mile course.
Upshaw said he was proud to be a part of the competition.
“It was an honor and an experience competing against these extremely gifted and athletic (Soldiers) from across the division,” Upshaw said. “Winning this competition validates all the hard work and effort I have put into being physically fit.”
Both Upshaw and Broome will represent Division West in the First Army Best Warrior Competition at Fort McCoy in April.
| Date Taken: | 03.11.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.11.2020 13:47 |
| Story ID: | 364984 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 153 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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