CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah - In the shadow of Utah's Wasatch Mountains, 14 competitors from throughout the Army National Guard battled it out in the 2015 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition to be named the Army Guard's best-of-the-best and earn the title of the Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year.
At the end of the competition, held at Camp Williams, Utah, Spc. Cruser Barnes, a cavalry scout with the Hawaii Army National Guard's Troop A, 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment, was named Soldier of the Year while Army Sgt. Robert Cunningham, a combat engineer with the West Virginia Army National Guard's 119th Engineer Company (Sapper), was named the NCO of the Year. Both will move on to compete in the 2015 all-Army Best Warrior Competition, scheduled to be held in October at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, where they will compete against Soldiers from throughout the Army to be named the Army's Soldier and NCO of the Year.
"I'm kind of in shock," said Barnes, after the announcement in an awards ceremony at the end of the competition. "It's crazy. That's all I can say. It's crazy."
But, Barnes said he's ready to take on the challenges that come with moving to the next level of competition.
"I'm stoked and ready to start training for the next event," he said. "I've got some time, it's not until October, but I'm ready to get in it and give it my best."
The Utah competition stood as a grueling three-day test that stressed competitors both physically and mentally.
"It pushes you to your limits, [you're stressed] and it really teaches you what it takes to be a well-rounded Soldier," said Cunningham of the competition.
To make it to the Army Guard-level competition the competitors worked their way up from winning unit-level Best Warrior Competitions and then up through successive competitions to the Army Guard-level competition.
"These Soldiers are already five-time winners," said Command Sgt. Maj. Brunk W. Conley, the command sergeant major of the Army Guard. "They've already won their unit best warrior competition, the battalion, the brigade, the state the regional. These folks have been in competition for months now. They've already demonstrated what it takes to compete and win."
For Cunningham, this year's competition marked his second time competing in the Army Guard-level competition. He took part in last year's competition at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, and said that while both competitions were equally strenuous, the terrain and higher elevation of Camp Williams brought added challenges to this year's competition.
"The higher you get, the less oxygen you have," he said. "With the miles we're putting in, it's harder to feed those lungs oxygen so you're wearing down faster, you're tired faster and you're sucking for air but it's about equal for everyone here."
Barnes agreed.
"The elevation and the air is totally different here," he said. "It's really dry, so it's totally different when you're running."
The competition began with the Army Physical Fitness Test, consisting of push-ups, sit-ups and a two mile run. From there, competitors toughed it out over a number of events that covered marksmanship, close quarters combat, land navigation, casualty evaluation and a variety of other tactical and technical skills that saw them running or traversing more than 20 miles of terrain over the course of the competition.
Barnes saw the stress shoot event, where competitors engaged multiple targets at several stations spread over a six-mile course, as one of the most challenging events of the competition.
"It was pretty challenging to do that whole course and shoot, move and run between ranges then calm down and shoot again," he said.
For Cunningham, getting through the competition was as simple as focusing on one task at a time.
"Basically you just tell yourself one more task," he said. "It's just one more task, get to the next one and then the next one."
Cunningham added that once he completed an event, he didn't dwell on how he felt his performance was. Instead, he kept his focus on what was next.
"Once you get to a task, whether you perform well or you perform poorly, you just put it behind you and focus on the next one and put one foot in front of the other and keep breathing and stay cool, calm and collected," he said.
Though it was designed as a competition, the larger focus was as a training event for those going through it, said Conley, adding that many of the events of the competition were overseen and developed by Soldiers from the Utah Army Guard's 19th Special Forces Group.
"Special Forces are really integrated into this and they have a lot of equipment, a lot of experience and leaders that are using that to stress our warriors and test them to the highest level," he said.
Many competitors saw that as a training advantage as well.
"You come here and you see what right looks like and how things should be done," said Barnes. "Then you've got more knowledge than many of the other guys in your unit coming out of here and training with Special Forces guys."
Barnes said he can then use that added knowledge and skill set to pass on to others in his unit.
"I can take that back and when I'm a sergeant I can just mentor my Soldiers and try and get them to competitions like this or get them to push themselves and get them to learn and to want to be better Soldiers," he said.
In many ways, that's the larger point of the competition, said Conley.
"The real winners are their units when they go back and they share their experiences with their peers and their subordinates and they take everything they've learned here and they put it into practice," he said.
For Barnes and Cunningham, the next step is putting into practice what they've already learned as they prepare for the all-Army competition.
"[I'm going to] try and ramp up training as much as possible and push my body to new limits," said Barnes. "Each competition you need to figure out what you're weak at and train more and just work on those things. I'm just going to try and keep progressing and honing my skills in."
Both said they expect the next competition to be even more grueling and challenging.
"It just gets harder and harder," said Barnes. "There is more stuff to train for, there's more distance. Mentally and physically, there's a lot more pressure as you get higher [in the competition]."
The next competition may be more demanding and arduous than previous competitions, but Cunningham said he's ready for it and has mentally prepared himself to get through it the same way he pushed himself through each previous competition.
"Basically, you just tune out the pain," he said. "You focus on good thoughts—your friends, your family back home and all the great opportunities and blessings that it is just to be here. Once you put that into perspective then the pain you feel is relatively miniscule."
Though for now, Cunningham stands in awe of being named Army Guard NCO of the Year.
"It's humbling," he said. "It's definitely humbling. It's an honor being able to represent all 350,000 [Soldiers in the Army Guard]. To be distinguished like that is an honor and a really humbling experience."