Best Warrior

Photo Gallery

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

Video Gallery

Video by Tom Shortridge

DARPA Triage Challenge Event 2 Awards Ceremony and Seminar

DARPA

Oct. 4, 2025 | 02:30:08

DARPA concluded the second year of the DARPA Triage Challenge on October 4, awarding top marks to DART and MSAI in Systems and Data competitions, respectively. The three-year prize competition aims to revolutionize medical triage in mass casualty incidents where medical resources are limited.

This year's event pushed teams to new limits with more complex, noisy datasets and degraded operational environments, mirroring the chaos of real-world disasters and battlefields. For the first time, medic teams and DARPA Triage Challenge technology teams collaborated in a special event to identify casualties in real-time, providing crucial medical decision support to first responders and paving the way for next year's final competition.

The challenge events are designed to bridge the gap between fundamental research and practical applications for military and national security needs. A key objective is to develop technologies to accurately assess life threatening injuries – such as hemorrhage or airway compromise – to help responders prioritize care and save lives when medical resources are stretched in both civilian and military crises.