Nevada Guard Soldiers Win Big in 2017
Soldiers of the Nevada Army National Guard might call 2017 the year of champions. With Soldiers winning in both the Best Warrior and Best Scout Squad competitions, they demonstrated the strength and endurance of battle-hardened warriors and scouts.
A year ago, SGT Grant Reimers was a specialist working as a motor transport operator in the 1859th Transportation Company. The day that would change his career in the Guard for the next year started like any other. While performing his normal drill duties one day in early April 2017, SGT Reimers was “voluntold” for the Nevada National Guard Best Warrior Competition. By October, he would earn the honor of being one of the best warriors in the country and the National Guard Soldier of the Year.
“It was pretty surreal,” SGT Reimers said. “My squad leader told me that I was going to do this, and I came into the competitions two weeks before the battalion level [contest], which was my first event.”
Though SGT Reimers did not initially volunteer, once given the challenge of competing, he was all in.
He had little time to prepare, but SGT Reimers fared impressively well at the battalion- or State-level competition and progressed to the higher level regional events.
At the National Guard Best Warrior Competition for Region VII – which includes the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, plus the Territory of Guam – SGT Reimers continued to dominate and finished first in the Soldier Division. Another Nevada Guard Soldier took the top spot in the NCO Division.
That fellow Soldier was SGT Oswald Sanchez, a scout with Charlie Troop, 1-221st Cavalry.
The two Soldiers had tangled at the State-level Guard competition, where something of a friendly rivalry started between them. After four days and 11 events, they were locked in a dead heat for Nevada’s overall Best Warrior title.
“We didn’t know it at the time, but we actually were tied,” SGT Reimers said. “We did a shootout [as a tie breaker], but leadership didn’t tell us what it was for. [SGT Sanchez] edged me out [in that event] to win overall.”
Toughened by the State- and regional-level competitions, SGT Reimers continued to train hard as he prepared for the All-National Guard competition.
“It took over my life for the last year,” he said. “I mean even between the competitions, I was doing a lot of training in the State. I went to Fort Benning to train for a month. The fact that I made it so far made it a huge part of my life, because I had so much training to do.”
During the All-Guard competition, SGT Reimers estimated that, all events totaled, he rucked 35 miles in three days.
The Best Warrior competitions are not for the faint-hearted. The grueling events are designed to be as intense as possible, and are meant to stress the competitors’ physical and mental agility. Only the most fortified Soldiers emerge victorious.
SGT Reimers proved he was among that elite group of Soldiers as he was named National Guard Soldier of the Year after the All-National Guard Best Warrior competition. He went on to compete in the All-Army competition.
“It was pretty special to be representing Nevada because we never had anybody go to the All-Army competition,” SGT Reimers said.” It was cool to be the first one to go that far”.
At the All-Army Best Warrior Competition, SGT Reimers faced some new challenges.
“They ran the All-Army [competition] very differently,” SGT Reimers noted. “It was one big scenario where the events fit together within that scenario. It was actually pretty cool the way they did it.”
There were 22 Soldiers vying for the honors of being named the Army’s top Soldier and NCO of the year. At the start of the six-day competition, the 22 were briefed on the fictional mission to infiltrate an enemy territory.
When SGT Reimers learned of the weapons he was to use during the mission, he was pleased to find a sniper rifle, AK47, Glock handgun and shotgun. Shooting events had proven to be one of the Soldier’s strong suits throughout the qualifying contests.
By contrast, going before the appearance board had been a challenge for the sergeant in the past.
“For the appearance board, you go before a panel of senior NCOs,” he said. “They basically ask you questions from military publications like the Field Manual and Army Regulations.”
At the All-Army panel though, SGT Reimers was prepped and ready. At that level, the board consists of sergeants major of major commands, including Daniel A. Dailey, the sergeant major of the Army.
In the end, SGT Reimers finished second in the Soldiers division of the All-Army Best Warriors Competition. SPC Hazen Ham, U.S. Army Pacific, took home the title of Army Soldier of the Year.
SGT Reimers, standing firmly in the winners’ circle, earned the honor of being one of the top Soldiers in the country.
“After having little preparation time and trying not to get lost in my first event, I was really surprised to have [won] second in the whole Army,” reflected SGT Reimers. “Most of my friends are giving me grief over not getting first [place]. It’s out of love though.”
Joining SGT Reimers in the Nevada Army National Guard’s 2017 winners’ circle is the 1st Squad, 221st Cavalry, who also achieved excellence in competition last year.
The squad of six scouts finished the 2017 Gainey Cup as the second best National Guard scout team in the Nation.
The Gainey Cup is a four-day contest where scout teams are evaluated in events, including reconnaissance skills, call-for-fire, timed obstacle courses and land navigation. The bi-yearly competition – designed to test Soldiers’ physical stamina and teamwork – is comprised of 24 teams from across the country, including three National Guard teams.
In January of 2017, the National Guard held its qualifying competition at Fort Benning, Ga., to select the teams that would represent the Guard at the Cup.
“We got a team together from the Soldiers in my troop,” said SSG James O’Conner, squad leader for the 1st Squad. “We went out to the Warrior Training Center [at Fort Benning] and they kicked our butts for about 24 hours. [They] took the top four teams out of eight, and we were selected. We came back in April to train for the Gainey Cup. Four teams went to the train-up; three went to represent the National Guard.”
The two other Guard teams were made up of Soldiers from the West Virginia and Illinois National Guards. The West Virginia National Guard team took second place overall in the competition.
Once at the Cup, the squads competed in a battery of events meant to push the Soldiers to their limits and test the scout teams’ prowess.
“It was 56 hours of continuous operations,” said SSG O’Conner. “Everything had a really clear timeline. We would do one event, hop on a [truck] and drive to another one.”
He went on to list some of the included events, “We had an obstacle course; night land navigation; dismounted route recon; call-for-fire; night observation post; an area reconnaissance lane; a stress shoot – where you do physical activities and then shoot at a target while you’re under duress; radios; putting on [CBRNE] gear; and first aid,” SSG O’Connor said.
“We didn’t really get any sleep,” said SPC Carlo Tinoco, one of the Nevada Guard Scout Team members. “Just straight-up activities, activities, activities.”
SSG O’Conner recalled how the training the team received at Fort Benning paid off in big dividends during the competition.
“We did well at the [events] that had a lot of dismounted and physical activities, because we came in good shape,” he said. “Establishing the night observation post – we did really well. The obstacle course, if I recall correctly, we finished in 30 minutes, while active Army was averaging about 45 minutes.”
The experience gained by the Soldiers of the 1st Squad, 221st Cavalry, at the 2017 Gainey Cup will serve them well beyond the days of the competition.
“The competition was good. It was a good experience for the whole team with an emphasis on basic scout tasks,” SSG O’Connor said.
“I learned that as a scout, you have to be a well-rounded Soldier. You need to be a master at everything like call-for-fire, sending reports, patrolling and being stealthy and deliberate,” SPC Tinoco said.
SSG O’Conner said he plans to compete again in the next Gainey Cup in 2019, but in more of a supervisory role. He encourages any Guard scout to give the Gainey Cup a try, and said that between the benefits of the excellent training received at Fort Benning and the possibility for career advancement, competing at the Gainey Cup is an easy choice.
“Do it just to see how you stack up against the rest of the Army,” SSG O’Connor advised. “It gives you a good opportunity for four to six weeks of training at the Warrior Training Center. The cadre there is outstanding. You really learn how to hone your craft as a Soldier, especially for a lot of units that are mechanized. We don’t do a lot of walking with packs anymore. We learned so much after six weeks.”
The Warriors and Scout Teams of the Nevada Army National Guard have proven their mettle this year by demonstrating that they are some of the best of American Soldiers. The dedication to their training and their military careers ensures that when duty calls, these Soldiers will be ready to stand and defend both their State and their Nation.
By Staff Writer Matthew Liptak
