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2025 Best Warrior Competition

 

BALTIMORE – Fourteen competitors from throughout the Army National Guard are slated to battle it out in a physically and mentally challenging five-day competition to determine the Army Guard’s Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the year July 14-18 in locations throughout Maryland. 

Hosted by the Maryland Army National Guard the 2025 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition tests competitors on a variety of tactical and technical tasks including weapons proficiency, land navigation, emergency medical tasks, and combat casualty care. These tasks are completed over a grueling set of courses throughout the state that includes multiple timed ruck marches and the Army Combat Fitness Test.

Winners in the competition – one Soldier and one NCO – are named the Army Guard’s Soldier and NCO of the Year and will compete in the Department of the Army Best Squad Competition this fall. Runners-up in the Best Warrior Competition fill out the Army Guard squad competing in the Best Squad Competition based on their finish in Best Warrior.

Competitors in this year’s Army Guard Best Warrior Competition include:

Soldier Category
Spc. Adam Andrews - Rhode Island 
Spc. Robert Ruiz-Rhoades – Pennsylvania 
Spc. Jaden Hughes - Alabama 
Spc. Logan Rutledge – Indiana
Spc. Alexander Thomson – Nebraska
Spc. Canyon Blassingame - Montana
Sgt. Michael Fouts – Arizona


NCO Category
Sgt. Kristopher Piwowarczyk - New Jersey 
Staff Sgt. Miles Crawford – Maryland 
Staff Sgt. Nicolas White – Georgia 
Staff Sgt. Brandon Byrne - Wisconsin
Sgt. Luke Entz – Nebraska
Sgt. Matthew Lee – Montana
Sgt. Luke Cloward - Utah

 

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Video by Cpl. Jacob Smith
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Kilo Company Completes Unknown Distance at Al Asad (b-roll)
Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade
July 17, 2015 | 2:31
U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, conduct a live-fire, unknown-distance range aboard Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, July 17, 2015. The range featured exercise stations at each firing point to increase the Marines’ heart rates, complicating their marksmanship. The training helped the unit maintain its readiness, essential to its mission in providing security to the Building Partner Capacity site at Al Asad, part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
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