Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Darron Salzer | Staff Sgt. Jacob Siggers, an observer coach/trainer from 1st Battalion, 305th Regiment...... read more read more
Approximately 34 men and women from major commands shed blood, sweat and tears over four days here recently in pursuit of the coveted title of ‘best warrior’ during the installation-wide Best Warrior Competition.
Five of those Soldiers were also competing head-to-head in the 2021 First Army Division East competition, which ran simultaneously.
“I’m here to compete,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Roden, an observer coach/trainer from 3rd Battalion, 395th Regiment (Armor), 188th Infantry Brigade. “I love competition and I also love the fact that the competition involves doing things that I enlisted in the Army to do. That’s what drew me to the Army and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to compete.”
Events such as day and night land navigation, weapons qualification, road marching, obstacle courses and throwing hand grenades were some of the events Roden and other competitors were tasked to complete.
These events and others forced Soldiers to dig deep within themselves to recall their training and overcome the challenge before them.
“My biggest challenge was going through the warrior tasks and battle drill lanes,” said Staff Sgt. Jacob Siggers, an observer coach/trainer from 1st Battalion, 305th Regiment (Infantry), 177th Armored Brigade.
“Being out of the loop for so long on those level one skills... I had to think back to the training I had when I was a private and a young NCO doing expert infantryman badge competitions every year,” Siggers said. “Especially with the medical lanes!”
Ensuring continued proficiency in warrior tasks and battle drills is just one lesson learned Siggers hopes to take back with him to their units.
“Don’t just do the check-the-box training,” Siggers said. “Take the time to go one step further and become proficient in that [skillset] no matter what it might be.”
“There are a lot of tough men and women here with a lot of knowledge,” he said.
Roden agreed.
“The caliber and level of competition I’ve seen here is exponentially higher than any competition I’ve been in throughout my entire career,” Roden said. “It’s good because it forces you to push yourself beyond your limits and beyond what you think you’re capable of.”
It was the right push Roden needed to rise to the top as the winner of both competitions.
“Knowing that I was competing against people who had interest and investment into the competition and then me preparing myself- preparing my body and my mind- to get out here to compete it feels really good to know that I put it together the right way,” he said.
Roden and Siggers will be joined by Staff. Sgt. Christopher LaBeause, an observer coach/trainer from 2nd Battalion, 289th Regiment (Maneuver), 157th Infantry Brigade, to represent the division at the First Army competition at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, later this year.
“Once we get up there, even though it’s an individual competition, we are a team from Division East so we’ll be taking care of one another and looking after one another,” Roden said. “It’ll be great to see those guys again and compete alongside them again.”
Siggers said the team aspect of what is an individual competition is something he looks forward to.
“We all know it’s a competition but we do lean on each other and joke with each other, we push each other and I think that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 04.08.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2021 16:42 |
| Story ID: | 393389 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Field is set for Division East at upcoming First Army Best Warrior event, by SFC Darron Salzer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
