 Good afternoon. Sorry to fill myself with HQG 357. I want to welcome you all to the announcement of the Army's very first best squad competition. It's caps off a week of physically demanding and mentally taxing events and I'll be honest we put this together I didn't realize how hard it would be. It was probably the toughest seven days I've seen soldiers endure my career and you are truly the Army's best standing in this room. They endured a hurricane, multiple nights of limited sleep, conducted squad land navigations all over Fort Pragg, multiple aerosols, fired a Carl Gustav, 18 floors and actually we're able to hang 60 rounds of 16-millimeter mortar just to name a few of the events. After extraction from the field this morning we immediately brought them to a grueling also course. They successfully executed demanding So standing with me right now are the 12 squad leaders of the 12 squads competing. Later on we will bring up all the soldiers from the squads so you can see them. Right now I'd like to introduce the squad leaders representing the squads of the 12 Commands. Representing Force Comp from 101st Airborne Division, the Lohawk Squad, Trade Ops Squad from the Airborne Ranger Training Brigade, the Striker Squad. Representing Second Calvary Regiment, U.S. Army Europe in Africa, U.S. Army Pacific Squad from the 25th Infantry Division, the Wolfpack Squad, Charlie Company, 75th Ranger Regiment making up the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Squad. Very original. We've got the Miniman from our Army National Guard. Representing U.S. Army Reserves, the Honey Badgers. First Information Operations Command. Representing Army Cyber, the Geek Squad, which is my favorite. Representing Army Medical Command, the Turner Kids, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Dietrich Routers. Representing Army Futures Command, the Army Material Command Squad, and last but not least, representing Old Guard, the Military District of Washington Squad. Let's give it a hand. We have Sergeant Major, our Sergeant Major, the Army Sergeant Major, SMA Michael Princeton joining us virtually. SMA. Thank you. I look forward to having a theme now. Hey, Sergeant Major, please tell if you can just raise your hand if you can still hear me. Good. So I'm really proud of you all and I can tell you that this weekend I spent with you. I actually came back to the Pentagon and I was actually happy to be back in the Pentagon because the weekend I had time to spend with these great soldiers. They've had a phenomenal week. I think they all thought that they were just going to do these word tasks in battle grills and we're still questioning some of the squad until we probably put them in a helicopter and then dropped them off in the middle of nowhere. I'm extremely proud of being adaptable and flexible with the weather and everything else we've thrown at them. I couldn't be more proud to be the Sergeant Major Army. I look forward to hearing who the top four candidates and the best squads that I'll see here on Friday. So it's about time to get after that. Thank you, SMA. So a quick observation from me to you. Petters, I don't talk to you earlier. Every cadre leader from the 82nd and 18th Demo Corps that came out and spent any time with you was highly impressed and we all could tell that you guys are actually the Army's best. So whether you get make it to Washington DC or not, I want you to go home with your head held high. And I'm telling you the truth. Everyone that was around you and observed you can spend time with you. You are the Army's best, so I appreciate that. Okay, unfortunately only four squads can go forward. Only four will travel to Washington DC where they will have a board and interview with the Sergeant Major's on your screen right now. And at this time what we're going to do is we're going to bring four squads up and one of those squads we will announce as the first squad that will be going forward to Washington DC. Squad one, Forces Command. Squad two, Treylock. Squad 11, Army Material Command. In Squad 12, Military District of Washington. Okay, moving in. The first squad moving to Washington DC is Forces Command. 101st Airborne Division. All right, next four squads coming up. Squad three, US Army, Europe, Africa. Squad seven, Army Reserve. Squad eight, Army Cyber Command. Squad 10, Futures Command. All right, our next squad heading to DC Friday is Squad 7, Army Reserve. And next four squads come up. So this time we're going to have two of these squad of these four squads will be moving to Washington DC. Squad four, US Army Pacific. Squad five, US Army Special Operations Command. Squad six, Army National Guard. Squad nine, MedCon. First squad, squad five, USISOC. And the fourth and final squad of the Army's first best squad competition is the Army National Guard. Squad six, USISOC, National Guard, stay up here. Okay, once again, recap after a grueling competition. All right, everyone in here did a fantastic job. Squad one, Force Comm. Squad five, USISOC. Squad six, the Army National Guard. And squad seven, the Army Reserve. Survey your sims. Your squad is one of the four squads. What's that mean to be able to have a shot at Winnie, the very first best squad competition? Yeah, that's me. Yeah. Hey, so I know if you wanted to ask them one-on-one, those other words are prepared for the fight and they're going to continue to bring you to the fight and we're going to bring you to the fight along with the courses tonight. Cool. Well done. That's what I'm going to do. Thank you, Joe. SMA, I know you guys are busy. Do you have any important words to share before we head to DC? Yeah, I just want to say for all the competitors, I'm extremely proud of all of you. You've reached your pedicle of your organization and I couldn't be more proud of all of you for competing in the first best squad competition. And like I said, it was just a joy to spend time with you. We wish we could bring you all up. We wish we could crown you all as winners, but there's only going to be one. And like the Chief says, winning matters. So best of luck to all of you and for all those that didn't actually make it forward, you should be extremely proud of everything that you've done because all of us here in my squad at the panel are very proud of all of you. So thank you. And for those moving up here to DC, I look forward to seeing you Friday night and at the barbecue. But before that, we'll see you at the board. So good luck. Appreciate it. All right. So I have a couple of questions for our winning squads. Who do I start with? Alvarez, where you at? Mr. Rode? Rode and Marge Kane. Where'd you come in at, too? Two or four times, maybe. All right. So who was the most challenging part of this competition? Definitely just all the rocking we did. We've just ever stopped and had the right marks. But we're on our back in pretty much a whole competition. And you're ready to go? Absolutely. Sorry, Cumber. Cumber. Hey, why didn't you write about your squad throughout the competition? They're all very resilient. And they don't stop driving forward. Everyone brings something different to the table. And we just gel every day we got closer. Let's get a great chat. Sorry, David. Where are you at? I'm here, sir. What's going to be your favorite memory from this week, if there is any? Probably a squad scene on some of the rock marches that we're doing. Was that you? No, it was us. Just trying to keep motivated and keep true to the long. I was okay to stay in as long as I could stay out of the run-up. Right. All right. Sergeant, where'd we get the sports car? What is a funny story from the field this week? It was a couple. I think one of them was... We just got to control this. We just got to do control this activities. We had to start off with good intentions. And then we started talking. So it was kind of fun. Inside us. But it kind of goes on. We got to work it out very strongly. And we immediately got back to work. And we kind of laughed about it because we didn't want to bother us. So we'll be done by the master march? We absolutely will be done by the end. Thank you, master march. Simpson, where are you at? Here's your memory. What are some ways your squad is close this week? I know you're close already, but I know it's pretty tough for you. What did you think? It's over. Do you think it's a way for you to push it together or just just confirming our trust that we already have each other? Just making that foundation stronger. Just like your memory can be tested against it. And that's what we do as a squad. And as members of the army, we are resilient. We can do a lot of mass. Interesting. Man of many words, Anderson. Hey, you guys sit down. Go back to your seat. Hey, so really closing. I know it's closing earlier. I'll have a crowd in view. And it's tough. But we have to be tough because our goal is to close with and kill the enemy. And we're all soldiers first. What you did in this competition, that just to be 3B during a hurricane with no notice. And I don't think that's ever... I think I'm pretty sure that they're happy before. And we had the EIB committee and the ESB committee up here as well. And they were not. You pushed on, you're resilient. You're fatally, you're physically fit. You work as a team. And I noticed what we saw is some of you, when others were having a hard time, you stood up and you helped out. All right, now remember one squad this morning where they couldn't find a cert, it wasn't sensitive. But they couldn't find something at a time act. And as soon as one soldier was done, who needs help? That's what we did. Okay, that's what this is my squad is all about. And that's why this is the best squad in the competition. And you never lost your cool leader. I'm really proud of you. Really proud of you. Everyone here in Fort Bragg is proud of you. Okay, but I do want to say one thing. I want to thank a few folks. I want to thank Forest Palm, sorry I made a grade in 18th and 11th of course. Sorry, I'm Holland. And sorry I made a pit in the 82nd Airborne Division. And mostly, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. I know this was tough on you, sorry Major. But you guys did it. And I was proud of you with your courage every day. And I think everybody in here with us. So we couldn't have done it without Sergeant Brownshot and his team. So thank you very much. Be sure to join us at AUSA. The links are out. Start next week and one day we'll announce the wing squad of the best squad competition. And we'll also be announcing the best soldier in NCO of the year from the competition. So that's all. Thanks.