Best Warrior

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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 Daisuke Sato

Trilateral River Cleanup

U.S. Army Garrison - Japan

June 8, 2021 | 3:40

Camp Zama BOSS Soldiers and members of Soyu-kai, JGSDF repay local community:

Narration:
Soldiers from Camp Zama’s Better Opportunity for Single Soldiers program, or BOSS, along with U.S. Army Garrison Japan Command Sergeant Major Justin Turner, recently joined a campaign to clean up the Sagami River, which is located just minutes from the installation.

The Zama Chu-ton-chi Sou-yu-Kai, one of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s noncommissioned officer organizations, hosted the event.

Interview: SFC Shuichi Chiba, Director-general, Zama Chu-ton-chi Sou-yu-kai, JGSDF
The motto of our commander, Colonel Ono, is “Together with the local community, together with U.S. Army Japan.” This year especially, he has emphasized to us to reinforce our efforts to contribute to the local community and to strengthen our partnership with U.S. Army Japan. In order to meet that intent, we planned today’s river cleanup event and invited both Zama City and U.S. Army Japan.

Narration:
During the cleanup, members of So-yu-kai; Soldiers from the BOSS program; and staff from Zama City—including Mayor Mito Sato—moved through the area in a socially distanced line, picking up litter and other items area near the riverbed, including cigarette butts, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and even a discarded barbecue grill.

Interview: COL Kazuya Ono, Commander, 4th Engineer Group/Zama Chu-ton-chi, JGSDF
I really appreciated the Soldiers from U.S. Army Japan participating in today’s event. The Soldiers and the staff from Zama City are very good partners for us in this region. Today, we cleaned up the river together and shared a sense of accomplishment, which helped build esprit de corps and improved the level of teamwork among us. So I think today’s event was very important and meaningful. Hopefully, we can further strengthen our relationship through more events like this.

Narration:
Within an hour, the group collected enough litter and discarded items to fill 20 to 30 garbage bags. Although they only worked together for a short time, some members of the group were able to form a friendship.

Interview: WO1 Tiffany Brown-Howard, Camp Zama BOSS

Interview: SSG Yuumi Okazaki, 4th Engineer Group, JGSDF
I became friends with Tiffany today. She said she’s been in Japan for 8 months, so I told her about some of the best spots in Japan to visit and tourist attractions in Kanagawa prefecture.

Even though JGSDF members and U.S. Soldiers work with each other on Camp Zama every day, we don’t have many opportunities outside of work to communicate with each other. So I personally think today’s event was great because I was able to talk with U.S. Soldiers.

Narration:
The cleanup effort was the first of its kind to be hosted trilaterally among single Soldiers, the So-Yu-Kai, and Zama City.

Interview: Mayor Mito Sato, Zama City
I believe we have a very good relationship with U.S. Army Japan and the JGSDF. I really appreciate that they participate in our events and are involved in volunteer activities.

I am truly thankful that they invited us to today’s river cleanup event and together, we were able to clean up the local area.

I really hope that we can continue to help each other through events like today’s, since we live in the same region of Japan. And I hope we can make our community a better place and continue to build a good relationship between the JGSDF and U.S. Army Japan.

Interview: CSM Justin E. Turner, U.S. Army Garrison Japan

Narration:

Reporting for U.S. Army Garrison Japan, this is XXXXXXXX