 New York Army National Guard Soldiers, assigned to the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, participated in a brigade-level best warrior competition, in Buffalo, NY. During the three-day event, the nine candidates completed a 12-mile rough march, military board, free weapon stress shoot, land navigation course, and an Army combat fitness test. The top junior enlisted soldier and non-commissioned officer will move on to the next phase of the competition slated for early next year, where they will compete for the title of New York State's best warrior. There were times where I was like, wow, I really don't want to be doing this right now. I just want to go home and sleep in my bed or whatever. But then I'm like, you know what, this isn't that bad. The best warrior competition tests a soldier's mind, body, and spirit. Over two and a half days, our soldiers are tested in six events. A three-gun shoot, warrior tasks and battle drills, a 12-mile rough march, land navigation, Army combat fitness test, and a formal interview board. To be successful at best warrior, you have to have the raw skills coming in. You got to be good at PT. You got to be familiar with the weapon systems. If I'm going to win it, I don't really want it to be because someone else had an off day. If I'm going to win, I want to beat somebody else on their best day. Same goes for me. I don't want to lose on an off day. I want to give it my all. And if someone beats me, then that's awesome. I hope a soldier that competed in this event walks away with a feeling of pride that they did more than most other soldiers that are in the New York National Guard. That they excelled in front of their unit leadership. And that they created a sense of confidence in themselves that they're able to do more than they initially thought they could when they arrived. I feel like I can now go back to my unit and kind of teach them things that I've learned. All these tasks, there's a multitude of things that they look for and you're getting goes or no goes overall. And so you can kind of see which boxes you missed and the takeaways and the lessons that you learned from there and you could bring those back to your unit. I enjoy this kind of stuff. This is what you sign up for. I would prefer to be moving around, rucking or doing PT rather than sitting down, not doing much or filling out paperwork. That's for sure.