Aviation battalion lands in best soldier, NCO competition

By Staff Sgt. Roy Henry
Georgia National Guard Public Affairs Office

 MACON – Two members of the Georgia Army National Guard aviation community are going to Fort Gordon in late April to participate in the Southeast's Region 8 Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year competition.

 Competition for the Georgia Soldier and NCO of the Year for 2008 was held March 28 and 29 on the grounds of the Guard’s Regional Training Institute. Ten Guardsmen from each of Georgia’s four major commands participated.

 Chosen Soldier of the Year was Spc. Anthony Garay, an aviation operations specialist with Headquarters Company, 171st Aviation Group. The 171st is based at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta. Garay, who hails from Dalton, studies exercise science at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville when he’s not serving with the Guard.

 Staff Sgt. Donnie Cook, the full-time admin NCO for Detachment No. 2, Company B, 935th Direct Aviation Support Battalion, was chosen Noncommissioned Officer of the Year. The detachment, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter outfit, is based at Savannah’s Hunter Army Air Field. Cook, who lives in Savannah, is originally from Waverly near Columbus.

 “What a great honor this is for me,” said Garay while receiving congratulations from the more than 60 senior enlisted and officers who attended the awards banquet at RTI’s dining facility. “There are others who deserve to be standing here along side me, but I’m proud to have been chosen the one to represent the Georgia Army Guard in the upcoming regional competition.”

Cook agreed, saying, “As much as I’m proud of having been selected NCO of the Year, I owe a lot to my fellow competitors for helping me get there. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a better example of team work, Soldiers helping Soldiers despite the fact that they were competing against each other, than what I saw over the past two days.”

Regardless of what some may think, being named Georgia’s top enlisted Soldiers isn’t as simply as someone saying “you’re it for this year.” Selection of the NCO and Soldier of the Year is made by 10 sergeants major only after each Soldier participates in an intense competition.

Each Soldier had to prove him or herself by obtaining the highest score possible in physical training, M-16 rifle qualifications and by putting into their own words their thoughts on they live the Army Values in and out of uniform. If that wasn’t enough, each had to answer questions put to them by the sergeants major about everything from Army Regulations to combat tactics to current events. 

Some competitors say that appearing before the sergeants major is the toughest part of the competition. For Garay and Cook, it was the Warrior Training Tasks, especially the one in which they had to disassemble, and then re-assemble the M-249B machine gun, that were the toughest.

“You have to understand that, the M-16 rifle and the M-9 9mm pistol are the weapons we’re familiar with,” Garay said. 

“That’s for sure,” said Cook, with a slight smile. “But what this does is re-enforce the idea that we can –at any time– be asked to do just what we did…break that weapon down, clean it and put it back together again.

 Competition such as we went through, really drives home the need for staying on top of your basic Soldier skills,” he added, “and not just those that you think apply to you.”

 That’s especially true, Garay and Cook agreed, about the upcoming regional competition at Fort Gordon. Both said they’ll be spending as much time as possible, in person, over the telephone and through e-mail helping each other get ready to take on a whole new field of competitors.

 

 

 

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