Photo By Melissa Buckley | The 1st Engineer Brigade squad celebrates winning the Maneuver Support Center of...... read more read more
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — After 56 hours of competition, the squad representing 1st Engineer Brigade was named the 2025 Maneuver Support Center of Excellence Best Squad during a ceremony held March 31 in Lincoln Hall Auditorium.
MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood Command Sgt. Maj. Jorge Arzabala said he is proud of all Soldiers who stepped up to represent their regiments in the competition and formed cohesive teams.
“Our Sergeant Major of the Army has given us four focus areas. One of them is warfighting and here at Fort Leonard Wood we translate that into lethality. We have to train to master the basics of what we do, these squads were tested and proved themselves,” Arzabala said. “We train excellence here, and each and every one of them is committed to that.”
MSCoE’s Best Squad Competition, held March 25 through 27, challenges those participating to find the most highly trained, disciplined and fit squad who demonstrates commitment to the Army Values and Warrior Ethos.
“The competition is designed to test each warrior’s endurance, mental acuity and how the squad was able to perform cohesively,” said Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Whitehorn, noncommissioned officer in charge of plans and operations for MSCoE and coordinator this year’s competition.
He said three squads comprised of five Soldiers each were tested on several tasks, including a non-standard physical fitness event, weapons qualification, day and night land navigation, drill and ceremony and a formal board.
“The stress shoot event was my favorite event. This event encompassed activities and weapons that not all Soldiers use in their respective units,” Whitehorn said.
The winning team’s squad leader, Staff Sgt. Vernon Fuller III, a drill sergeant with Company C, 35th Engineer Battalion, said the MSCoE competition identified opportunities the team could expand on, such as land navigation.
“Night land navigation, not being able to move under red light capabilities, only doing quick map checks with red light, it is something we will … work on.”
Other members of the winning squad are Sgt. Christopher Poore, Pfc. Miguel Corrado, Pfc. Johnathan De La Luz and Pvt. Dorian Bautch, all assigned to various units within the 1st Engineer Brigade.
Fuller said he volunteered to compete because he wanted to challenge himself.
“We do a lot of teaching as drill sergeants. I wanted to personally challenge myself, mentally and physically, by training with a squad,” Fuller said.
MSCOE’s squad will now go on to compete in the TRADOC Best Squad Competition scheduled for the end of April at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
“We already went over the basics for this competition, now it’s time to take what we have identified as our strengths and weaknesses and build upon that,” Fuller said. “We are looking forward to representing MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood at the TRADOC competition.”
During the award ceremony, Arzabala said they are not wasting any time.
“We start our training tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.,” Arzabala noted. “At the end of the month we will show TRADOC what the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence is all about.”
Last year, MSCoE’s squad won at the 2024 TRADOC Best Squad Competition and placed fifth out of 12 teams at the Army level.
| Date Taken: | 03.31.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2025 09:26 |
| Story ID: | 494564 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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