{"id":253440,"date":"2024-08-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=253440"},"modified":"2024-08-14T05:18:51","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T05:18:51","slug":"new-york-alabama-soldiers-are-army-guards-best-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=253440","title":{"rendered":"New York, Alabama Soldiers are Army Guard\u2019s Best Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Command Sgt. Maj. John Raines, the command sergeant major of the Army National Guard, applauds after presenting trophies to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kirtley Finnell, center, a combat engineer with the 20th Special Forces Group, Alabama Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Sgt. Peter Fillion, an infantryman with C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment, New York Army National Guard, after they were named the 2024 Army National Guard Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year during a ceremony in Burlington, Vermont, Aug. 8, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy)
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\n Competitors in the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition run a 1-kilometer route as part of the competition\u2019s biathlon event at Ethan Allen Firing Range, Vermont, Aug. 6, 2024. Winners are named the Army Guard Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year and compete in the Department of the Army Best Squad Competition. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy)
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ETHAN ALLEN FIRING RANGE, Vt. \u2013 Sgt. Peter Fillion, an infantryman with C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment, New York Army National Guard, and Staff Sgt. Kirtley Finnell, with the 20th Special Forces Group, Alabama Army National Guard, were named the Army National Guard\u2019s 2024 Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year and move on to represent the Army Guard in the Department of the Army Best Squad Competition Sept. 29 to Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

The pair bested 12 other competitors in the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition, a physically and mentally challenging event held Aug. 4-8 at Ethan Allen Firing Range, Vermont. Runners-up in the competition will fill out the Army Guard squad that competes this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach day has been challenging in its own way,\u201d said Fillion. \u201cUsually starts with an early morning, and although the activities may not go into the late evening, you\u2019re up late preparing for the event that\u2019s tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosted by the Vermont Army National Guard, the competition tested competitors on tactical and technical tasks, including weapons proficiency, land navigation, mountaineering, emergency medical tasks, and combat casualty care. These were completed over a grueling course that included multiple timed ruck marches and the Army Combat Fitness Test.<\/p>\n

Fillion felt he excelled at the land navigation course, where competitors had five coordinates to plot on a map and use a compass to find their way across hilly, uneven terrain to each point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found all five points and I came back first in the junior enlisted category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s early morning start meant finding each point in darkness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started land nav at 4 in the morning in pitch black,\u201d said Fillion, adding that the course included \u201clots of wet logs and difficult terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The terrain also added to the difficulty of other events, such as the ruck march. Competitors completed several, ranging from 2 to 12 miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuck marching is the most difficult,\u201d said Fillion. \u201cYou\u2019re just carrying weight and walking for a long time and everything kind of hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushing through that is one of the keys to succeeding in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge,\u201d said competitor Staff Sgt. Alexander Wilkinson-Johnson, an intelligence analyst with the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade, Maryland Army National Guard. \u201cExcelling through adversity is really what you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing that mental focus and drive is one of the best things about the competition, said Command Sgt. Maj. John Raines, the command sergeant major of the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being around these Soldiers motivates me and gets me fired up,\u201d he said. \u201cI tell everybody it\u2019s the best part of the year and the best Soldiers to hang out with just because of what they bring with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raines said competing in the national competition in Vermont spoke volumes about each Soldier. To get there, each first had to excel at the unit level. After winning there, competitors underwent similar challenging competitions at the higher headquarters, state and regional levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets tough,\u201d said Wilkinson-Johnson. \u201cAnd the higher you go it only gets harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting through it means pushing yourself that much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mindset that you have to have, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how emotionally detracted you get, you have to dig deep for that internal fortitude to continue driving on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fillion said competing has made him a better Soldier\u00a0\u201cby helping me really iron out what the basic Soldier tasks are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had many more opportunities to train and get better at those skills,\u201c he said. \u201cThen getting evaluated very strictly on those skills helps me become much better because I get that feedback right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkinson Johnson said honing those skills and learning from other competitors translates to added capabilities that are brought back to the unit and shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be nice to be able to take the experience that I had interpersonally competing against these Soldiers and bringing that back to the unit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to Fillion and Finnell, the Army Guard squad that will compete in the Best Squad Competition this fall includes Sgt. Hunter Grunhard, Montana Army National Guard; Sgt. Trace Thompson, Missouri Army National Guard; and Spc. Andrew Nakamura, Hawaii Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

National Guard Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

National Guard X<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 Command Sgt. Maj. John Raines, the command sergeant major of the Army National Guard, applauds after presenting trophies to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kirtley Finnell, center, a combat engineer with the 20th Special Forces Group, Alabama Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Sgt. Peter Fillion, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253442,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253440"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253445,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253440\/revisions\/253445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/253442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}