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Another Test
Under the oppressive Georgia heat and humidity, 12 squads from across the Army — including one representing the Army National Guard — battled it out at Fort Stewart Sept. 29-Oct. 6 in the 2023 U.S. Army Best Squad Competition.
The event determined the titles of Best Squad, Soldier of the Year and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year in the Army.
Winners were announced Oct. 10 at the annual Association of the United States Army meeting in Washington, D.C. All three titles went to a squad with 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, representing U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Though the Army Guard squad didn’t take home top honors, participating in the competition brought its own rewards.
“We are in an amazing organization here,” said Spc. Luke Harrison of the Army Guard squad. “And it’s cool to see people from all over the organization, all over the world come together. We have a common goal, a common language and we can compete, but also, you know, share that camaraderie.”
Squads participated in ruck marches, weapons firing battle drills and land navigation — all while operating together as a squad day and night across more than 200,000 acres of land, with limited sleep and food.
“I think the amount of physicality, and that compiled with a lack of sleep and possibly a lack of proper nutrition, can create a compounding effect of fatigue,” said Sgt. Quentin Holden, with the Georgia Army Guard’s C Company, 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment, who was part of the Army Guard squad. “So, that scared me a little bit.”
But Holden and the rest of the squad persevered. “If I had to pick a word to describe my team, I think I would choose unrelenting,” he said.
This year’s competition also included testing on special skill certifications. Participants could earn either the Expert Infantry Badge, awarded to infantry and Special Forces soldiers; the Expert Soldier Badge, earned by non-infantry or Special Forces soldiers; or the Expert Field Medical Badge, awarded to soldiers in medical career fields.
Harrison, a radar operator with the Wyoming Army Guard’s 115th Field Artillery Brigade, was a little nervous about the badge testing’s physical fitness assessment, which included a mile run, a 100-meter sprint, a sandbag toss, a jerrycan carry, individual movement lanes and another one-mile run.
Participants were scored on completing the assessment in a specified time.
“I was trying to break my personal record,” Harrison said. And he did. “I was excited about that,” he said. “Beat it [his old record] by about 40 seconds. So that’s a big deal for me.”
Many of the competition’s physical and mental challenges weren’t new to the squad members. The path to Best Squad began with testing at the unit level and again at the higher headquarters level. State and regional competitions followed, before the 2023 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition, hosted by the Alaska Guard at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in July.
Each competitor earned their place on the Best Squad team based on their performance at the Best Warrior Competition.
Harrison, Holden and the rest of their squad weren’t the only Guard soldiers to compete this year.
A squad with the Idaho Guard’s C Company, 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, represented U.S. Army Forces Command. That squad was selected after winning the U.S. Army Central Best Squad Competition and the FORSCOM competition while deployed to the Middle East.
That deployment experience helped prepare the squad for the all-Army competition.
“We just came off of deployment together, and because of that, we just know each other well and we work well together,” said Staff Sgt. Joshua Hutchins, the squad leader of the FORSCOM squad.
It’s not the first time an Army Guard unit has represented FORSCOM in the competition. A squad with Florida’s 1st Squadron, 153rd Cavalry Regiment, represented the command last year.
— By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
PHOTO ABOVE
Sgt. Quentin Holden, an Army Guard team member, conducts a functions check on an AT-4 rocket launcher during the competition. (Spc. Molly Morrow)
