Ohio National Guard News

STC develops mentorship skills during
Best Warrior Competition;
selects Soldiers, NCOs moving on to State BWC

Story and photos by Staff Sgt. Chad Menegay, 196th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Brig. Gen. Anthony DiGiacomo, commander of the Ohio Army National Guard Special Troops Command (Provisional), awards the Army Achievement Medal to the STC Noncommissioned Officer of the Year to Sgt. Zachary Smith, a combat medic with the Ohio Army National Guard Medical Detachment, Oct. 14, 2018, at the Camp Sherman Joint Training Center in Chillicothe, Ohio. Smith won the noncommissioned officer category and was named the STC’s NCO of the Year after a very strong overall performance, and will move forward to the State BWC, scheduled for March 2-3, 2019, at Camp Sherman.

Staff Sgt. Vincent McNamara, a construction operations noncommissioned officer at the Camp Perry Joint Training Center in Port Clinton, Ohio, shoots an azimuth during land navigation Oct. 13, 2018, as part of the Special Troops Command (Provisional) Best Warrior Competition Oct. 13, 2018, at the Camp Sherman Joint Training Center in Chillicothe, Ohio. McNamara found all four land navigation points and placed runner-up in the BWC, qualifying him for the state competition.

Staff Sgt. Arthur Ledger (left), an infantryman who works at the Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center in Newton Falls, Ohio, coaches Pfc. Emily Funderburg, a dental specialist with the Ohio Army National Guard Medical Detachment, on marksmanship skills during the Special Troops Command (Provisional) Best Warrior Competition Oct. 13, 2018, at the Camp Sherman Joint Training Center in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Pfc. Emily Funderburg, a dental specialist with the Ohio Army National Guard Medical Detachment, fires during weapons qualification as Staff Sgt. Arthur Ledger, an infantryman who works at the Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center in Newton Falls, Ohio, works as a range safety as part of the Special Troops Command (Provisional) Best Warrior Competition Oct. 13, 2018, at the Camp Sherman Joint Training Center in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Sgt. Joshua Berg, a range operations noncommissioned officer at Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center in Newton Falls, Ohio, and a Boardman, Ohio, native, appears before a board of sergeants major Oct. 14, 2018, Special Troops Command (Provisional) Best Warrior Competition Oct. 13, 2018, at the Camp Sherman Joint Training Center in Chillicothe, Ohio.

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (10/17/18) — Soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard’s Special Troops Command (Provisional) took the spirit of individual competition and turned it into a mentorship opportunity.

As the Special Troops Command (STC) conducted its annual Best Warrior Competition Oct. 12-14 at the Camp Sherman Joint Training Center, Soldiers came together to develop skills and gain knowledge they will pass on to members of their individual units. While the objective of the competition on paper may be to select the best, most competent Soldiers and noncommissioned officers to represent the brigade next March during the statewide Best Warrior Competition (BWC), both competitors and cadre at the event understand that there is a more lasting purpose at work.

“It’s always fun to compete and test your skills and knowledge,” said Sgt. Zachary Smith, a combat medic with the Ohio Army National Guard Medical Detachment, located in Columbus, Ohio. “But I would say, at the end of the day, it’s more important to pass the knowledge down to the lower enlisted.”

Smith won the noncommissioned officer category and was named the STC’s NCO of the Year after a very strong overall performance. He said that being forced to study for the board and master Army Warrior Tasks adds to the tools noncommissioned officers have to impart knowledge on to the lower-ranking enlisted Soldiers they lead.

“As noncommissioned officers, our primary objective is training; we’re passing on that progression of knowledge,” Smith said.

Staff Sgt. Alex Johnson, a BWC cadre and Basic Leader Course instructor at the 147th Regional Training Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and a Heath, Ohio, native, said that the competition “not only develops the Soldier competing, but it also helps to develop mentors.”

Competitors said the BWC forces them to rehearse skills they don’t regularly practice, skills like drill and ceremony (commonly known as marching movements and commands) and land navigation. They can, in turn, lead instruction and mentor Soldiers on these same tasks at their unit level.

“Even as a cadre member, I learned some things,” Johnson said. “I took part in some meetings and did things I wouldn’t usually do, so I think it not only develops competitors, but there’s also multi-echelon units and training involved because there’s a lot of people who are going to be operating out of their normal realm.”

Multi-echelon training brings a lot of units that wouldn’t normally interact with one another together. It gives everybody a different look at how other units operate and plan. One example of how units operate and plan differently is how they select Soldiers to compete in the BWC.

Key leaders at the unit levels go through their rosters to select who they think would be the most successful candidates. Some potential competitors are asked to volunteer and some are ‘voluntold’ to compete. Some units hold their own competitions in the selection process. The Medical Detachment held its own mock board with three NCOs and three lower enlisted Soldiers, and leadership chose two candidates from those competitors, respectively. The trial runs at the unit level and mock boards help to identify Soldiers who can deal with stress in the moment.

Smith said that butterflies come into play when one is put on the spot and people are watching at BWC.

“The stress doesn’t mirror something like combat operations overseas because there is no element of danger to the competition,” Smith said. “But it parallels partially because you do get flustered in the moment and have to make split-time decisions, which, overseas and in theater you have to do, and you can get flustered as well.”

Soldiers underwent about 20 hours of demanding events, including: a 6-mile road march, a physical fitness test, weapons qualification (M4 carbine and M9 pistol), Engagement Skills Trainer, written essay, drill and ceremony, Army Warrior Task-shoot, Army Warrior Task-survive and an appearance board.

“This is about pushing yourself physically and mentally,” said Sgt. Joshua Berg, a range operations noncommissioned officer at the Camp James A. Garfield Joint Maneuver Training Center in Newton Falls, Ohio, and a Boardman, Ohio, native. “There’s a lot of knowledge-based criteria, then, to throw on top of that lack of sleep and physical exertion, it puts even more stress on you mentally.”

All STC Soldiers withstood the stress and made it through the competition. Winners were the aforementioned Smith as the STC NCO of the Year and Pfc. Emily Funderburg, a dental specialist also with the Medical Detachment, who was named STC Soldier of the Year.

This is a selection process that falls under an Army-wide Best Warrior Competition, so the winners move on to the Ohio Army National Guard state competition, scheduled for March 2-3 2019, also at Camp Sherman. From there, state winners compete in a regional competition encompassing several Midwestern states.