Texas National Guard members and service members from the Chilean and Czech armed forces battled to earn the title of Best Warrior in the 2018 Texas Military Department Best Warrior Competition Feb. 28-March 3 at Camp Swift near Bastrop, Texas.
The physically demanding event provided the opportunity for cultural exchange and enhanced military capabilities in a friendly, but competitive environment.
“With our State partnerships [with] the Czech Republic and Chile, we trade technical expertise, leadership and values on how they may operate and how we may operate with tactics and techniques,” said CSM Kristopher Dyer, senior enlisted advisor of the Texas Army National Guard.
This year’s Best Warrior Competition brought together 28 candidates who competed in nine rated events that closely imitated real-life and combat situations.
“Everything within the competition is scenario-based to where they would be able to participate in a combat environment or a real-world exercise,” CSM Dyer said. “We put them in mental and physical fully blown tests to see how they react under pressure and stress.”
CSM Dyer said the importance of the relationship between the Texas National Guard and the Czech and Chilean armed forces emerges in the ability to predict the thoughts and processes of a partner nation. That helps the nations to work in unison, he said.
The inclusion of foreign forces in events such as Best Warrior is part of the mission of the Texas Military Department State Partnership Program. The program facilitates cooperation across all aspects of international civil-military affairs and encourages people-to-people ties at the State level.
For Staff Sgt. Juan Domingo Silva, a Marine with the Chilean Navy, this was his first opportunity to participate in a multinational event.
“The physical aspect has been challenging, but we’ve trained for similar events in Chile,” he said.
Staff Sgt. Silva stressed that the competition meant much more than winning; it meant representing his country and learning to adapt to a different environment and culture, he said.
The program provided Chilean service members with a bilingual sponsor to help with language challenges during the competition.
“The culture exchange experience has been valuable,” said Texas Army National Guard SPC Manuel Najera of A Company, 536th Brigade Support Battalion. SPC Najera served as Staff Sgt. Silva’s sponsor.
“The most challenging part has been adapting to the Chilean-Spanish dialect,” SPC Najera said.
Sgt. Jan Hronek of the Czech Republic said interacting with multinational service members increased his cultural awareness.
“This competition has shown me the similarities between forces and how they operate,” he said. “I feel proud to serve and represent my country abroad.”
The competition enabled participants to refine their skills and learn from their counterparts.
“At the end of the day, this is an event that brings Texas together with two separate countries that we are partnered with,” CSM Dyer said. “Together, they learn from each other and benefit from training and different techniques by which we can lead our Soldiers and [effectively] operate in our environments.”
BY SPC Gerardo Escobar, TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD
