101st Cavalry Soldiers win NY Army Guard Best Warrior

CAMP SMITH - Two Soldiers assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 101st Cavalry were named victors in the New York Army National Guard's 2024 Best Warrior Competition, conducted from April 16 to 19 at Camp Smith Training Site.

Sgt. Peter Fillion, an Amherst resident, was named Best Soldier, while Sgt. 1st Class Travis Wood, who lives in Basom, took home the Best Non-Commissioned Officer award.

A total of seven Soldiers took part in the competition, which tests Soldiers on their basic and advanced warrior skills.

Over the course of the three-day event, the competitors went through a series of exercises and exams designed to test their physical and mental capabilities.

This is the second year in a row that Soldiers assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry have won the Best Warrior event.

In 2023 Sgt. Adam Crist, an assistant personnel sergeant, won in the non-commissioned officer category, while Spc. Philip Stevenson, an information specialist, was tops in the enlisted category.

Fillion, an infantryman, said he the enjoyed the Camp Smith competition.

"It's a great move in the right direction and a big challenge, but it was a lot of fun as well... just having the opportunity to improve myself," Fillion said.

Wood, who is also an infantryman, said he was looking forward to moving onto the northeast region competition, which New York will be hosting May 13 to 17 in the Buffalo area, Fort Drum, and Manhattan.

"It's definitely an honor to be representing New York State at the next higher-level event... It's a lot of pressure, but good pressure," Wood said.

Soldiers compete at their battalion and brigade levels to make it to the state Best Warrior event.

Soldiers who compete at the unit level in the ranks of private to specialist compete in the junior enlisted category, even if they make sergeant by the time of the state competition.

Soldiers in the ranks of sergeant to sergeant first class compete in the NCO category.

The evaluated tasks are specifically designed to mirror today's operating environment, according to State Sgt. Major Corey Cush.

The events included night and day land navigation, individual weapons qualification for rifle and pistol, an obstacle course, and a stress shoot.

Realistic shooting tasks, which involve moving between cover under fire, shooting on the move and transitioning between weapons, is especially important said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Allen, the noncommissioned officer in charge of all the range safeties.

"They're able to get behind cover, engage the target, reload, advance on the target while shooting, move to different barriers, and once they run out of ammo, transition to the M17 pistol behind cover," Allen said.

"This range helps the soldiers get outside the typical 'see your target, shoot, target goes down' kind of thing… shooting on the move and transitioning between weapons makes it more realistic," he said.

The Soldiers also took part in an air landing exercise and as part of that flight, they got a chance to view the Statue of Liberty from a Black Hawk helicopter circling around the landmark.

"This experience caught me by surprise," said Sgt. John Winheld, a member of the 152nd Engineer Support Company.

"We got to see the Statue of Liberty and see New York City, that's a once in a lifetime experience," he added.

The competition ended with a 12-mile road march at Camp Smith, in which Soldiers carried a rucksack weighing 25 pounds.

"The ruck march is the hardest part of this whole competition," said Spc. Essa Njie, a member of the 27th Finance Battalion. "All these events are designed to stress us out, then we do a ruck march- you're already exhausted, tired from the previous day, and you go right into it."

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.