10th Mountain sweeps FORSCOM NCO, Soldier of Year

FORT MCPHERSON, GA, UNITED STATES

08.11.2005

Story by Capt. Cain Claxton 

24th Theater Public Affairs Support Element

✔ ✗ Subscribe

42

FORT MCPHERSON, Ga. – A pair of 10th Mountain Division (LI) Soldiers were named U.S. Army Forces Command’s NCO and Soldier of the Year here Thursday.

Staff Sgt. Eric Hayes and Cpl. Chad H. Steuck defeated 14 challengers from among FORSCOM’s subordinate commands. They will go on to represent FORSCOM in the Department of the Army NCO and Soldier of the Year Competition Sept. 22 in Washington, D.C.

“I’m proud to go forward and represent these (NCOs) and FORSCOM” at the DA competition, said Hayes, who won similar competitions at 10th Mountain Division and XVIII Airborne Corps on his way to winning here at the FORSCOM level. Hayes, 27, is a cavalry scout in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Drum.

Hayes and Steuck established themselves as the best FORSCOM has to offer after three days of testing on soldiering. The Soldiers were tested on physical fitness, Army regulations and field manuals, day and night land navigation, rifle marksmanship, common Soldier tasks and written and oral communication skills.

Both Steuck and Hayes said their fellow Soldiers here were formidable competitors.

“All of my peers did a good job – they should have been up here too,” Hayes said of the seven other NCOs in the competition. He admitted he felt somewhat uncomfortable receiving the honor of NCO of the Year, especially as he developed friendships with his challengers as the competition progressed.

“This is by far the hardest competition I’ve had and now it’s going to get even harder as I get ready for the DA board,” he said.

Steuck said he was also humbled at being selected Soldier of the Year.

“I didn’t expect it,” he said. “I’ve been with great competition all week. I’m just honored. When you first get here, you size up your competition … but the way the sergeant major had it set up, he said from the beginning he wanted everyone to become friends.”

Command Sgt. Maj. Carl E. Christian, FORSCOM command sergeant major, tasked the competitors after they arrived Sunday to make friends with each other, have fun and be safe.

“That’s exactly what we did,” said the 22-year-old Steuck, an infantryman with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana.

Steuck’s path to the FORSCOM competition routed through Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, and 1st Army Soldier of the Year competitions.

To win at the DA level, Steuck and Hayes said they will continue to train. Hayes said he has been training and studying for these competitions since January. When summer came, his only duty at Fort Drum was to prepare for the FORSCOM competition.

At Fort Polk, Steuck and his sponsor, Sgt. 1st Class Jason Levy, laid out a training program about a month before the FORSCOM event.

“I think we developed a good training plan together,” Levy said. “Bottom line – he executed. He wanted it, and he did it.”

Steuck said he is going to concentrate on studying field manuals and Army regulations as he prepares for the DA competition. Hayes wants to improve his performance before a board of command sergeants major.

Others vying for Soldier of the Year were Spec. Eugene Patton, 5th Army; Sgt. Joshua Dutton, U.S. Army South; Sgt. Jason Scott, U.S. Army Reserve Command; Sgt. Jason G. Sestak, I Corps; Pfc. Blakely Dean O’Hara, III Corps; Pfc. Dustin Shultz, XVIII Airborne Corps; and Sgt. Lawrence Haggerty, Network Enterprise Technology Command. Shultz is another 10th Mountain Division Soldier, assigned to the Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd BCT, Fort Drum.

Others competing for the NCO of the Year honor were Sgt. 1st Class Lash L. Bailey, 1st Army; Staff Sgt. Justin Schreppel, 5th Army; Sgt. 1st Class Elva Marquez, USARSO; Staff Sgt. Andrew J. Ghiglieri, USARC; Staff Sgt. Christopher Johnson, I Corps; Staff Sgt. Joseph Taylor, III Corps; and Sgt. Robert Zlotow, NETCOM.