{"id":254473,"date":"2024-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=254473"},"modified":"2024-08-15T05:13:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T05:13:44","slug":"ny-army-guard-sgt-peter-fillion-wins-army-national-guard-best-warrior-soldier-category","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=254473","title":{"rendered":"NY Army Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion wins Army National Guard Best Warrior “Soldier” category"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, an Amherst, New York resident who won the Army National Guard’s Best Warrior Competition, poses for a photo during the 2024 competition at the Army Mountain Warfare School, Jericho, Vermont, Aug. 5, 2024. The Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition was a five-day event composed of 14 Soldiers representing the regional winners; the competition tests Soldiers\u2019 physical and mental prowess with a series of events with the overall winners receiving either Soldier of the Year or Non-commissioned Officer of the Year recognition. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Lianne M. Hirano)
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\n U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. John T. Raines, left, the command sergeant major of the Army National Guard, shakes hands with New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, an infantryman who won the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition, held in Jericho, Vermont, on Aug. 8, 2024. The Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition was a five-day event composed of 14 competitors representing the regional winners; the competition tests Soldiers\u2019 physical and mental prowess with a series of events with the overall winners receiving either Soldier of the Year or Non-commissioned Officer of the Year recognition. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Lianne M. Hirano)
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\n New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, the winner of the Army National Guard’s 2024 Best Warrior competition, rucks down steep terrain in the 12 mile final event during the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition at the Army Mountain Warfare School, Jericho, Vermont, Aug. 8, 2024. The Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition was a five-day event composed of 14 competitors representing the regional winners; the competition tests Soldiers\u2019 physical and mental prowess with a series of events with the overall winners receiving either Soldier of the Year or Non-commissioned Officer of the Year recognition. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Lianne M. Hirano)
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\n New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, left, anAmherst resident who won the Army National Guard’s Best Warrior competition in the Soldier Category, and Spc. Andruw Nakamura, right, an infantryman assigned to the Hawaii Army National Guard, participate in the second ruck march event during the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition at the Army Mountain Warfare School, Jericho, Vermont, Aug. 5, 2024. The Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition is a five-day event composed of 14 competitors representing the regional winners; the competition tests Soldiers\u2019 physical and mental prowess with a series of events with the overall winners receiving either Soldier of the Year or Non-commissioned Officer of the Year recognition. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Lianne M. Hirano)
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\n New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, who won the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition, finishes the final ruck of the National Best Warrior Competition, August 8, 2024, near Jericho, Vermont. The Best Warrior Competition was a physically and mentally challenging five-day event that tests Soldiers on a variety of tactical and technical skills. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Everett Babbitt)
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JERICHO, VERMONT– New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, an Amherst resident, part-time architect, and graduate student, is now one of two Best Warriors in the 325,000- Soldier Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

Fillion, an infantryman in the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment who was a specialist when he first competed, beat six competitors from across the country in the junior enlisted Soldier category.<\/p>\n

Each of these Soldiers had previously won their unit, state, and regional Best Warrior events, before competing for the national award at Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vermont from August 4 to 8.<\/p>\n

Noncommissioned officers compete against other sergeants in their category.<\/p>\n

Fillion will now compete alongside other Best Warrior finishers in the Army\u2019s Best Squad Competition from Sept. 29 to October 10.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time a New York Soldier has taken home this honor, according to Command Sgt. Major Edwin Garris, the New York Army National Guard\u2019s top enlisted leader.<\/p>\n

Being best in the entire Army Guard \u201cis kind of surreal\u201d, Fillion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting feeling because you\u2019ve had a major accomplishment in one area, but in your civilian life you just go back to who you were before,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re happy for you, but they don\u2019t really understand what it took to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

What it took \u201cto get there\u201d, Fillion said, was a lot of exercise and brainwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese competitions are really good at testing you both physically and mentally,\u201d Fillion said.<\/p>\n

His strong Christian Faith was helpful in sustaining him through those tough parts, he said.<\/p>\n

Best Warrior competitions include marksmanship, a physical fitness test, land navigation, military skills, boards where Soldiers are quizzed on their military knowledge, and several long distance \u201cruck march” events to test endurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuck marching is the most difficult because you are carrying weight and walking for a long time and everything kind of hurts but you just keep going,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Fillion\u2019s edge in the competition came in the areas involving military knowledge, Garris said<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where he shines,\u201d Garris said.<\/p>\n

At that level of competition everybody is physically fit, or they wouldn\u2019t have gotten that far, he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the separation, is the mental aspect of it,\u201d Garris said. \u201cYou may be able to move, shoot and communicate, but can you think on your feet?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fillion agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of units send their top dog physically, but they often overlook how many points can be earned on intellectual tasks,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are many times I wasn\u2019t the strongest person, but I was the one that knew the most about unified land operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

His best event in the field was land navigation, Fillion said. The event started at 4:30 a.m. and he navigated through the darkness to find all the points he needed and return first, he said.<\/p>\n

Getting ready for the Best Warrior was a balancing act, Fillion said.<\/p>\n

He was working his job at Kideney Architects in Buffalo, and taking a full course load at the University of Buffalo while preparing for the competition.<\/p>\n

His wife Samantha, an intensive care unit nurse in Buffalo, helped him immensely by acting as his study partner, Fillion said.<\/p>\n

He had to identify his priorities and stick to them but be flexible, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you should be studying but sometimes your family is more important, so you have to put that to the wayside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His unit also helped him get ready by putting him on orders in the weeks prior to the national competition so he could focus on preparing, Fillion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made sure to spend a lot of time working on my physical ability, making sure my legs were super strong,\u201d Fillion said. \u201cThat was my main focus, working out, because I had done a lot of the intellectual stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other big challenge during the competition was the lack of sleep, Fillion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the activities may not go into the late evening you are up late preparing for the event that is tomorrow. So, whether it be studying for a board or packing a ruck for the ruck march the next day you are always up a little bit later than you want to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While he and the six Soldiers he was competing against, started out wary of each other, but by the end they were great friends, he said.<\/p>\n

As he moves onto the Best Squad event\u2014competing with Soldiers he was competing against\u2014he\u2019s going to be working to improve his endurance and shooting skills, Fillion said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also thinking about where he\u2019ll go with the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s half-way through his initial six-year enlistment and looking at the<\/p>\n

different paths he could take in the Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have enjoyed my time in the Guard so I am not in a hurry to do get out. I\u2019ve been giving it 110 percent and I will keep on giving it 110 percent, \u201che said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 New York Army National Guard Sgt. Peter Fillion, an Amherst, New York resident who won the Army National Guard’s Best Warrior Competition, poses for a photo during the 2024 competition at the Army Mountain Warfare School, Jericho, Vermont, Aug. 5, 2024. The Army National Guard Best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254475,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254473","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\/254473","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=254473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254481,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254473\/revisions\/254481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/254475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}