WARRIOR BASE, South Korea — Staff Sgt. Amanda Miller sounded a lot like an Olympic athlete who had just made it through the preliminaries of her sport, after she successfully completed the most difficult challenge in her bid for an Expert Field Medical Badge.

"I made some silly mistakes, but I came through as a ‘go,’ " she said Sunday. "I just got a little too excited and I got ahead of myself when I was clearing a malfunction on my weapon.

"Another silly thing I did — I was treating a patient with an abdominal wound and you’re supposed to tie two non-slip slipknots on the side," Miller continued. "I don’t know why I did it, but I made one a non-slipknot, and I made one a not-so-much-secure knot."

Nevertheless, Miller — of the 121st Combat Support Hospital at Yongsan Garrison — had done enough right on the "technical combat casualty care lane" to move on to the next phase of the grueling five-day elimination process. This is Miller’s second bid for the badge.

Beginning Saturday, 121 candidates from various medical disciplines gathered just a couple of miles from the North Korea border to vie for the coveted badge, something akin to a gold medal for people like Miller.

"It is a little piece of metal that you wear on your uniform, but what it represents you can’t even put into words," she said. "For me, it means legitimacy; it means being the best at your job. I’m not a combat medic. I’m a combat laboratory technician, so it is legitimacy in my [military occupation specialty].

"For me, it is legitimacy as a female soldier and legitimacy to a lot of the other [people] who think the medical field is soft. This is not soft. This is hard."

Indeed, only 14 participants succeeded of the approximately 120 in the first group to try for the badge earlier this month at the Joint Security Area Mockup. "The average for a badge-holder [to succeed] is three times," according to 2nd Lt. Derrick Duff, one of the organizers of this year’s challenge for the badge. "There were people in our last group that have gone for it five times and still didn’t make it through."

Duff said there are only a half-dozen places around the world where Army personnel can compete for the badge, which was first made available in 1965.

Candidates must pass a written exam, a couple of land-navigation challenges and a variety of mock battlefield medical and physical tests. Those who survive then must complete a 12-mile ruck march within three hours.

The technical combat casualty component of the challenge is the most difficult, Duff said, because candidates must carry out more than 250 small to significant tasks while enduring battlefield conditions that include sniper fire, smoke, rocket blasts and the incessant cries for help from the "victims" they are treating.

Spc. Johnathan Henriquez, an operating room specialist for the Pacific Regional Medical Command in Hawaii, said he was able to shut out the shouting and pleas from his battlefield patients because this was his third attempt at a badge.

He dutifully tended to each patient, as the others peppered him with loud demands that included: "I’ve been laying here forever," "You can’t let me die here like this," and "Why are you taking so long? Help me."

What Henriquez was not able to ignore, however, was the pain from an ankle he turned at the beginning of Sunday’s exercise.

"I guess I stepped in a big pool of mud and kind of twisted it," he said. "I think it affected my concentration."

Alas, Henriquez failed in his bid for a badge because he made too many mistakes on the course. He still had nothing but praise for the experience, calling it "great training." He added that he plans to be back next year to try again for the badge.

Asked why, Henriquez said, "I don’t quit."

Meanwhile, Miller was looking forward to her remaining challenges and perhaps a crack at the 12-mile march and a gold-medal experience of her own.

"I am actually visualizing crossing the finish line at the end of the 12-mile ruck march," she said. "My heart is in it, and I really hope that I am able to come through and do it this year."