ETHAN ALLEN FIRING RANGE, Vt. – Sgt. Peter Fillion, an infantryman with C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment, New York Army National Guard, and Staff Sgt. Kirtley Finnell, with the 20th Special Forces Group, Alabama Army National Guard, were named the Army National Guard’s 2024 Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year and move on to represent the Army Guard in the Department of the Army Best Squad Competition Sept. 29 to Oct. 10.
The pair bested 12 other competitors in the 2024 Army National Guard Best Warrior Competition, a physically and mentally challenging event held Aug. 4-8 at Ethan Allen Firing Range, Vermont. Runners-up in the competition will fill out the Army Guard squad that competes this fall.
“Each day has been challenging in its own way,” said Fillion. “Usually starts with an early morning, and although the activities may not go into the late evening, you’re up late preparing for the event that’s tomorrow.”
Hosted by the Vermont Army National Guard, the competition tested competitors on tactical and technical tasks, including weapons proficiency, land navigation, mountaineering, emergency medical tasks, and combat casualty care. These were completed over a grueling course that included multiple timed ruck marches and the Army Combat Fitness Test.
Fillion felt he excelled at the land navigation course, where competitors had five coordinates to plot on a map and use a compass to find their way across hilly, uneven terrain to each point.
“I found all five points and I came back first in the junior enlisted category,” he said.
The event’s early morning start meant finding each point in darkness.
“We started land nav at 4 in the morning in pitch black,” said Fillion, adding that the course included “lots of wet logs and difficult terrain.”
The terrain also added to the difficulty of other events, such as the ruck march. Competitors completed several, ranging from 2 to 12 miles.
“Ruck marching is the most difficult,” said Fillion. “You’re just carrying weight and walking for a long time and everything kind of hurts.”
Pushing through that is one of the keys to succeeding in the competition.
“It’s always a challenge,” said competitor Staff Sgt. Alexander Wilkinson-Johnson, an intelligence analyst with the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade, Maryland Army National Guard. “Excelling through adversity is really what you have to do.”
Seeing that mental focus and drive is one of the best things about the competition, said Command Sgt. Maj. John Raines, the command sergeant major of the Army National Guard.
“Just being around these Soldiers motivates me and gets me fired up,” he said. “I tell everybody it’s the best part of the year and the best Soldiers to hang out with just because of what they bring with them.”
Raines said competing in the national competition in Vermont spoke volumes about each Soldier. To get there, each first had to excel at the unit level. After winning there, competitors underwent similar challenging competitions at the higher headquarters, state and regional levels.
“It gets tough,” said Wilkinson-Johnson. “And the higher you go it only gets harder.”
Getting through it means pushing yourself that much more.
“The mindset that you have to have, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how emotionally detracted you get, you have to dig deep for that internal fortitude to continue driving on,” he said.
Fillion said competing has made him a better Soldier “by helping me really iron out what the basic Soldier tasks are.
“I’ve had many more opportunities to train and get better at those skills,“ he said. “Then getting evaluated very strictly on those skills helps me become much better because I get that feedback right away.”
Wilkinson Johnson said honing those skills and learning from other competitors translates to added capabilities that are brought back to the unit and shared.
“It’ll be nice to be able to take the experience that I had interpersonally competing against these Soldiers and bringing that back to the unit,” he said.
In addition to Fillion and Finnell, the Army Guard squad that will compete in the Best Squad Competition this fall includes Sgt. Hunter Grunhard, Montana Army National Guard; Sgt. Trace Thompson, Missouri Army National Guard; and Spc. Andrew Nakamura, Hawaii Army National Guard.