JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST -- Soldiers from the U.S. Army Public Health Command came to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to compete in the Atlantic Best Warrior competition Feb. 10 -13.
The Soldiers took part in a wide variety of tasks, testing their skills as warriors in order to represent not only their command, but themselves.
“The candidates competed in 12 different events which tested both their mental and physical abilities,” said Sgt. 1st Class Bryan Kosling, Public Health Activity operations NCO, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. “The purpose of the event is to stress and test their ability to react and think under pressure. They were commonly kept in the dark and did not know what the event entailed completely, so their ability to react and overcome those events was phenomenal for all of the candidates.”
One of the events, called the Army Warrior Task, located here at the Joint Training and Training Development Center has a room created to imitate a deployed environment. Each candidate had to lead a four-man team under enemy fire and chemical attacks. Just after a few minutes, they quickly assigned a wounded Soldier in need of medical attention. They were evaluated on how accurately they cared for and evacuated the patient.
Other events included the newest Army combat fitness test, water survival test and a 9-mile ruck march.
"My favorite and least favorite was the ruck march,” said U.S. Army Sgt. John Suarez, Public Health Activity animal care NCO, Fort Belvoir, and NCO category winner. “It was my favorite because I didn’t think I had enough to finish it in time and I found it somewhere. I don’t know where it came from but I found out that I could do it.”
Medical units do not regularly have access to practice combat skills, but with competitions such as these, they are prepared to be Soldiers first.
“It prepares [them] to be future leaders and endure stress,” said Kosling. “Having been through it before they can then pass that on to their Soldiers and build their Soldiers gradually. Even though it was a competition, it was training. They were training in all of those events.”
The winners will move on to the regional competition to represent the Public Health Command throughout the Atlantic.