U.S. Army Sgt. Nicholis Couture, assigned to 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, navigates through a land navigation course, part of the European Best Warrior Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 14, 2014. Couture came away with the 2014 USAREUR NCO of the year. (Pablo N. Piedra/U.S. Army)
U.S. Army Sgt. Nicholis Couture, assigned to 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, navigates through a land navigation course, part of the European Best Warrior Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 14, 2014. Couture came away with the 2014 USAREUR NCO of the year. (Pablo N. Piedra/U.S. Army)
U.S. Army Pfc. Nicholas Hanson, assigned to 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, negotiates the inverted rope climb obstacle during the European Best Warrior Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 14, 2014. Hanson was named the 2014 USAREUR Soldier of the Year. (Pablo N. Piedra/U.S. Army)
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Michael Theising, 15th Engineer Battalion, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, prepares to move a simulated casualty during the live fire lane of the European Best Warrior Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 15, 2014. Theising earned the 2014 USAREUR Best Junior Officer award. (Pablo N. Piedra/U.S. Army)
The 173rd Airborne Brigade team engages in a hostage rescue exercise as part of the U.S. Army's 2014 "Best Warrior" competition at the Grafenwohr, Germany, training area, Sept. 17, 2014. (Michael Darnell/Stars and Stripes )
Members of the Europe Regional Medical Command team had to negotiate part of an obstacle course without breaking an egg and using only three thin slats during the 2014 U.S. Army's "Best Warrior" competition in Grafenwohr, Germany, Sept. 17, 2014. (Michael Darnell/Stars and Stripes )
U.S. Army Europe's "Best Warrior" competition is part of a larger series of events that lead up to Army finals scheduled for Oct. 6-10, 2014, at Fort Lee, Virginia. Here, the Europe Regional Medical Command team finishes the last part of a 45-minute-long obstacle course, Sept. 17, 2014. (Michael Darnell/Stars and Stripes )
Eleven teams consisting of U.S. Army Europe's soldiers participated head-to-head at the Grafenwohr training area in a weeklong challenge that saw 33 soldiers compete to be named USAREUR's Best Warrior, Sept. 14-19, 2014. The challenges included technical skills tests, uniform inspections and simulated casualty evacuations, like this one held Sept. 16, 2014. (Michael Darnell/Stars and Stripes )
A simulated casualty evacuation such as this one was among the challenges facing U.S. Army Europe's top soldiers during USAREUR's "Best Warrior" competition Sept. 14-19, 2014, in Grafenwöhr, Germany. (Michael Darnell/Stars and Stripes )
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — U.S. Army Europe’s fiercest competitors converged on the Grafenwöhr training area last week for six grueling days and nights of obstacles, tests, live fires and challenges to determine who would wear the title of 2014 USAREUR Best Warrior and Best Junior Officer.
In the end, the 173rd Airborne Brigade team from Vicenza, Italy, was victorious.
Sgt. Nicholis Couture came away with the 2014 USAREUR NCO of the year, while Pfc. Nicholas Hanson was named the 2014 USAREUR Soldier of the Year. The 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s 1st Lt. Michael Theising, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, earned the 2014 USAREUR Best Junior Officer award in a concurrently run competition that is unique to Army Europe’s command.
“It was an honor to compete against the best soldiers in Europe, and definitely daunting at times,” Hanson said, “but that’s what makes the competition fun.”
Couture and Hanson went head-to-head against 23 other enlisted soldiers in challenges that often started long before sunrise and finished up after most folks had gone home for the evening.
The competitors tackled a live-fire course, day and night land-navigation courses, detailed uniform inspection boards, as well as a bevy of exercises that simulated real-world scenarios. Each event — from the Army physical fitness test to one-on-one combative matches — was fired off back-to-back, giving the soldiers little time to rest, and even less time to think. That was by design, according to Sgt. Maj. Tony Tuck, the training sergeant major of the challenge.
“They’ve gone through a lot of competitions to get here,” he said. “They started off at company level with company boards, battalion boards, battalion best-warrior competitions from PT competitions to weapon qualification competitions. … You take all those winners and you put them all together and you come up with the best team to compete at the Europeans.”
Even the privates, new as they are to the military lifestyle, were tested on their knowledge of Army regulations, their decision-making under fire and their ability to lead, as well as follow, in emergency situations.
“Being asked to be a part of one of the most prestigious brigades teams was amazing,” Hanson said. “I was determined to bring as much to the table as both of my teammates, and I feel like I made up for my lack of experience through out-of-the-box thinking, motivation and pushing them physically.”
The 10 officers who acted as de facto team leaders through the competition were equally tasked, but with much less of a reward being offered for their success. While the Department of the Army offers the enlisted men a chance to be named the Army’s best NCO and soldiers, there is no more upward mobility for the officers in this competition. This week was the culminating event for the lieutenants and captains who had to fight through USAREUR’s strongest junior officers to be named the best.
“Last year I competed; I lost at the 21st TSC comp, so this year I was driven to come back with a vengeance,” Theising said. “I started off kind of weak, with some of the live-fire events. So that threw my confidence at first. That was the biggest thing, just bouncing back from that. Luckily the next day I did well at land navigation and the physical lanes, so that brought me back to where I needed to be.”
While Theising’s journey ends here, Couture and Hanson have now earned the right to continue on to the Department of the Army level of the competition scheduled for October at Fort Lee, Virginia.
They said the challenges they faced this week has prepared them for anything the Army can throw at them and that victory is easily within their grasp.
“I am getting ready for the best competition by studying hard on any weak points I found during this last competition, as well as training hard physically working out a couple times a day,” Hanson said. “As for how I think I will do, the 173rd paratroopers made it this far, and we are in it to win.”
