The 101st Airborne Division Friday announced its 2017 Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year.
Soldier of the Year is Spc. Neal Warren an infantryman, assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. NCO of the Year is Sgt. Michael Smith, a senior transmission systems operator/maintainer, assigned to 58th Signal Company, 101st Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade.
Warren and Smith will represent the Screaming Eagles over the next 12 months and will compete at the XVIII Airborne Corps Competition this summer.
The six brigades within the 101st Abn. Div. were represented in the grueling three-day competition by a Soldier and NCO who had already won their respective battalion and brigade Best Soldier/NCO competitions. Only five of the 12 challengers who started the competition survived Day One.
Day One included a Ranger physical fitness test that included push ups, sit ups, pull ups and 5-mile run, as well as warrior tasks and battle drills lane, weapons qualification range, obstacle course and practical exams on sling load operations, weapons knowledge and calls for fire, that whittled down the number of competitors to two Soldiers and three NCOs.
Day Two competitors were up at 1 a.m. and marched approximately 5 miles to a land navigation course where they were given grid coordinates to locate during both night and daylight hours. Land navigation was one of several events Smith excelled at, finding all his points nearly an hour ahead of his fellow competitors. “I’d rather go fast and get my break,” Smith said. “It was extremely challenging. Having to ruck march between each event made it especially mentally challenging. But I feel really good. I feel like I did my best.”
The next event, a stress-shoot range, earned notoriety from the competitors as the most challenging.
Competitors were directed to sprint to a simulated casualty, a 250-pound rescue mannequin, and carry it to two firing points – a distance of approximately 150 meters. At each firing point, before firing their weapon at targets, competitors were presented with fine motor skills tasks that tested their mental acuity. Before firing an M9 pistol at a third firing point, competitors held their lower arms in an ice bath for approximately 15 seconds.
“Physically, I had no problem,” Warren said. “It was the ability to perform small motor skills under highly stressful situations that I found most challenging.”
Other Day Two events included The Sabalauski Air Assault School obstacle course, an 8-mile foot march, an Army combatives technique evaluation by proxy in which competitors demonstrated techniques by coaching two volunteers from the Fort Campbell combatives team and a written knowledge exam.
The final day began with an early morning 15-mile foot march – the distance unknown to the competitors until after they had finished.
Warren was the top finisher overall and was followed by Smith, who battled through a lot of pain he said, as did many of the other competitors. The Soldiers and NCOs had little time to rest, having only three hours to prepare for the final event – a board presided over by the division’s senior enlisted adviser, Command Sgt. Maj. Gregory Nowak, and comprised of command sergeants major from each of the division’s brigades.
Following the board, Nowak congratulated the participants for their efforts and encouraged the winners to continue to push themselves and to inspire their peers to step up and do the challenging things that make better Soldiers.