Soldier, NCO of Year Reflect on Competition, Rewards of Winning
(June 22, 2011) |
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| ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, June 17, 2011) -- No
doubt about it, to become Soldier of the Year and
Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, the year-long contest
is a grueling struggle to overcome fear, obstacles and the
dreaded boards hosted by sergeants major. |
Staff Sgt. Christopher M. McDougall was named the Army's 2010 Noncommissioned Officer of the Year, and Sgt. Sherri Gallagher is the Army's 2010 Soldier of the Year. |
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Eight months after winning the 2010 Army's Best
Warrior Competition, Sgt. Sherri Gallagher, the
first female Soldier of the Year, and Staff Sgt.
Christopher M. McDougall, the NCO of the Year,
reflect on how difficult the competition was,
and how rewarding it has been since.
A
total of 24 Soldiers, representing 12 commands
from across the Army reported to Fort Lee, Va.
last October to compete in the ninth anniversary
of the competition. But the Fort Lee competition
is just the culminating "super bowl" of many
grueling challenges.
The warriors for
Soldier of the Year included privates through
specialists, and warriors for NCO of the Year
included corporal through sergeant first class.
All Army active, National Guard and Reserve
Soldiers were eligible to compete.
At
every level of competition, participants |
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are grilled by a board of senior NCOs on a range
of subjects including Army history, Soldier
skills, current events, land navigation or first
aid |
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"They ask you question after question for about an hour.
This goes on for about a year," said Gallagher who remains
humbled to be the first female Soldier of the Year. "It's
kind of fun to be able to compete against your peers,
whether they be male or female and to compete against each
other and help each other to progress."
A member of
the Army Marksmanship Unit, Gallagher has won 21 national
rifle shooting records. But for her, being able to teach
women Soldiers was a really amazing experience, she said.
"I just got back from Afghanistan a few months ago. My
unit has been a constant presence there for the past two
years, with a team who have been training the Afghan
National Army in marksmanship," Gallagher said.
"When I got to go, I got to train the female officers of the
Afghan National Army. It was really amazing because there's
only been two groups of female officers that have been
through the program," Gallagher said.
Gallagher said
at first they had to work through an interpreter but as they
taught each other Dari and English, communication became
easier.
"It was really amazing to be able to work
with them, to watch them grow, to hear their personal
stories and accounts of how they grew up and how they're
finally getting the freedoms that they've been striving for
and they're taking it very seriously. They're amazing
students and they're doing everything they can to help their
families, themselves and their country. It's just very
motivating," Gallagher said.
Staff Sgt. Christopher
M. McDougall, a military policeman at U.S. Army Garrison
Stuttgart in Germany, saw his role, for the past eight
months after being named NCO of the Year, as ambassador for
the Army.
"I went out to tell our stories, trying to
motivate fellow NCOs to get involved in these sorts of
competitions," he said. "I think at times, people shy away
from them. Maybe they're afraid of them or don't believe in
themselves. We kind of show them the other side of that,
that there is benefit in doing this. And if you do set your
mind to that, if you set that goal, then you can be
successful."
Throughout the competition, though, he
tried not to focus on being good at one thing -- saying he
knows the Army wants to see more well-rounded Soldiers.
"It's the total Soldier concept -- how you need to be
across the board in everything you're asked to do,"
McDougall said, humbled by being named NCO of the Year.
"It's been an honor but kind of surreal, (and) it's not
necessarily a goal that I would have set for myself in the
beginning of this competition, or series of competitions,"
McDougall said. "All I wanted to do was represent my
leadership, myself, my unit, my organizations to the best of
my ability."
The competition, he said, pushes
Soldiers to levels outside their comfort zone, pushes them
to do things they wouldn't attempt, or they don't believe
they could do. But McDougall said no matter how you do in
these types of competitions, just your preparations for them
make you a better Soldier.
"And if you can push your
Soldiers to go out there and get involved in these sorts of
things -- maybe they will, maybe they won't win, I think
that's irrelevant -- but what that Soldier becomes from the
process is a more well-rounded Soldier, more confident, and
more willing to put themselves out there," McDougall said.
Being named NCO of the Year has given him many other
rewards.
"It's a unique position to be in. Not
everybody gets to represent the NCO Corps in this manner,
and you get to learn outside of our normal day-to-day life.
You get to see more of the big Army perspective on things.
You meet a lot of key leaders, hear them talk and hear what
they've been through throughout their careers," he said.
McDougall said his most memorable experience in his Army
career so far has been his deployment to Iraq.
"I
think my proudest moment as a Soldier and noncommissioned
officer is deploying as a squad leader to Iraq -- 15 months
as a squad leader with those 15 Soldiers with me, going
through the rigors of day-to-day life, experiencing
everything they did and completing our mission to the best
of our ability, to the best that we could as a squad,"
McDougall said.
Though he looks forward to spending
more time with his wife and two children, he continues to
think about the Soldiers who have helped him achieve this
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Thinking about those
Soldiers who are in harm's way, day in and day out, and
without them doing what they're doing, we wouldn't be able
to be back here doing what we're doing thinking about those
Soldiers who are deployed right now gives you the motivation
to keep going, to not quit," he said.
The past eight
months have given McDougall many opportunities, he said, but
none have been more memorable than being able to visit
wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in
Washington, D.C., and at Brooke Army Medical Center in San
Antonio.
"The most rewarding aspect of the last eight
months has been down in San Antonio, Texas, at the
All-American Bowl (where) we got a chance to spend some time
with the wounded Soldiers coming out of Brooke Army Medical
Center at Fort Sam Houston," McDougal said. "And the most
important thing we got to do was come over to lay a wreath
at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Va."
Gallagher summed up what she feels has been the most
rewarding aspect of the competition.
"I think it's
really great to be able to be an inspiration, if that's how
I'm perceived. But I think it's really neat for people,
whether they're male or female, to set goals for themselves
and to be able to recognize those goals and to achieve
them," Gallagher said. "And to know that with the Army,
through the support of our team, that they can look forward
to those goals and actually make them happen."
The
winners of the 2010 competition were announced during the
Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting in
Washington, D.C., on October 25, 2010. |
Article and photo by Rob McIlvaine
Copyright 2011 | |
Reprinted from
Army News Service
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