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In 2024, Soldiers took to the world stage, competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Paralympics and at the 2024 Miss Universe Pageant. A Soldier won the title of Miss USA for the first time while two Army astronauts earned received prestigious honors in Pentagon ceremonies. And once again the Army’s top Soldiers vied to be named best in the Army at the 2024 Best Squad Competition.
Top Soldiers, Best Squad
A week of strenuous competition, sleep deprivation and ruck marches at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, culminated with the Army naming its top Soldiers at the Best Squad Competition, announced during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual exposition and Meeting.
In October, the Army selected Spc. Mason Breunig, from Fort Shafter, Hawaii, the 2024 Soldier of the Year, among some of the Army’s most fit, elite Soldiers including Army Rangers.
Sgt. 1st Class Alexander Haynes a medic from Fort Sam Houston took NCO of the Year honors, after serving as a mentor and leader for his U.S. Army Medical Command squad.
“My whole focus this entire time was taking care of my Soldiers, making sure that they were prepared for the next event, that they were mentally focused,” Haynes said.
Breunig’s team from U.S. Army Pacific Command, Fort Shafter, earned Best Squad of the Year honors at the annual Best Squad Competition.
During the contest, which took place from Sept. 29-Oct. 14, 12 of the most disciplined, highly trained teams from across the Army spent the first week of the competition in the field,. That included a 12-mile ruck march, 18-mile ruck march, battle drills, and field warrior skills tests that evaluated technical and tactical proficiency. Then the competition’s top four finishers traveled to Washington, D.C., for a board-style review with service leaders.
Each squad consisted of a squad leader in the rank of a sergeant first class or staff sergeant, a team leader in the rank of sergeant or corporal, and three squad members ranked specialist or below.
In addition to evaluating squads on the Army Combat Fitness Test, the competition also challenged Soldier discipline and endurance during ruck marches where competitors had to carry 50-pound ruck sacks. Competitors donned hazmat suits, performed life-saving skills and took part in weapons competition.
“[The competition] taught me so much about myself,” said Sgt. Luke Burton, a USARPAC squad member from the 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. “I think it taught all of us a lot about ourselves — how much we’re willing to push ourselves — where that line is and how to cross it.”
Going for Gold
U.S. paralympic swimmer Elizabeth Marks, the most decorated athlete in the Army World Class Athlete Program history earned more medals to add to her storied Paralympic resume. The sergeant first class won silver in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke, 200-meter individual medley, mixed 4X50-meter freestyle relay and mixed 4X50-meter medley relay in her disability category at the games.
The Soldier-athlete was also chosen by Team USA to be the co-flag bearer at Stade de France along with wheelchair basketball athlete Paul Schulte during the 2024 Paralympics.
Marks earned silver in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke, 200-meter individual medley, mixed 4X50-meter freestyle relay and mixed 4X50-meter medley relay in her disability category at the games.
Capt. Sammy Sullivan claimed her first Olympic bronze medal in Paris in July with the U.S. Rugby Sevens team’s third place win over Australia. Sullivan, a former All-American rugby player at West Point, also competed on the All-Army women’s rugby team before earning a spot on the U.S. national rugby sevens team and joining WCAP. The U.S. Military Academy graduate and engineer officer, stationed at Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, California, competed on the U.S. national team. During the Paris games, she scored tries in decisive wins against Japan (36-7) and Brazil (24-5).
Staff Sgt. Leonard Korir, a motor transport operator and Soldier-athlete in WCAP, ran track and field in the Paris Olympics and earned a bronze medal in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando in April. He is ranked 68th in the world.
Sgt. Anthony Rotich, a chemical equipment repairman assigned to WCAP, achieved the Olympic Standard in the 3,000-meter steeplechase event and ranked number one in the men’s division in the U.S. His first mile time was 4:21 with an overall finish of 8 minutes 13:74 seconds in Monaco, France. The Olympic qualification standard time for Paris in his event is 8 minutes, 15 seconds.
Out of this world success
Maj. Kate Rubins, an Army astronaut, set a new milestone when she became the first Army reservist to receive the U.S. Army Basic Aviation Badge with the astronaut device and the Basic Space Badge in a ceremony at the Pentagon Nov. 21.
Rubins, who has been on two space missions, has logged the fourth-most hours in space by a female astronaut.
NASA selected Rubins as an astronaut in 2009. In 2016, Rubins became the first person to sequence DNA in space. Rubins said that she decided that she wanted to apply for a commission while still aboard the International Space Station during her second space expedition in 2021.
Rubins commissioned into the Army as an Army Medical Service Corps officer Nov. 2, 2021, joining the 75th Innovation Command under Army Futures Command.
Col. Frank Rubio received the Army Astronaut Device in March. The award is given to Army personnel who complete at least one operational mission in space. He is only the third active-duty Soldier authorized to wear the device, which was placed on his senior aviator badge.
Rubio, who attended West Point, flew more than 600 combat flight hours during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He applied to NASA and was selected for the 2017 astronaut candidate class.
He and his crew launched to the International Space Station Sept. 21, 2022. They studied cardiovascular health in space, explored 3D tissue printing and worked on several other projects.
After spending more than a year in space and logging more than 157 million miles, the three men finally returned to earth Sept. 27, 2023. Rubio became the new record holder for the longest spaceflight for an American astronaut, something he said was not an individual achievement.
Crowning Achievement
Second Lt. Alma Cooper, an intelligence officer, won the Miss USA pageant in August, becoming the first active-duty Army officer to win the title.
Earning Miss Michigan USA earlier in the year solidified her spot in the Miss USA pageant. She started preparing in January and won a local contest before competing at the state competition in April.
The West Point graduate is now in her final year of her master’s degree program in the Stanford Nutrition Studies Research Group at Stanford University, where she earned the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship. She said she hopes to apply her training in data science during her career as a military intelligence officer.
| Date Taken: | 12.02.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.03.2024 11:17 |
| Story ID: | 486481 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, YEAR IN REVIEW: Soldiers excel at national, world stage and in space, by Shannon Collins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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