NCO of the Year Competition

Somehow, I was roped into competing in the Battalion NCO of the Year Competition. I say somehow, but I know exactly how I got involved; my Command Sergeant Major volunteered me. Yes, I was voluntold.

This competition took place over 2 days. My competitors included 3 male NCOs and 2 female NCOs.

Yesterday, Day 1, we were given a written exam. It consisted of 70 questions. Not multiple choice: (which is the usual Army way) it was Q & A. The test included pretty obscure Army questions. I honestly left a lot of blanks blank.
 

Then we were taken to an urban land navigation course. We were to find 8 points and do a graded task at each point. I ended up walking approximately 15 miles between tasks. It took me 6 and a half hours. Yesterday was 82 degrees. I wanted to kill myself.
 

This is me wanting to die on Day 1.

Day 2 began this morning with a Combatives Tournament. I loathe combatives. Especially when you roll in poison ivy. I had 3 bouts, and managed to win 1. Immediately following combatives, we rucked up and did a 4.5 mile road march. We were warned we would cross a creek along the way. However, when I found the creek, it was actually a river due to all the rain we've gotten in the past week. Once I waded through the river, I set myself up to have wet socks and boots the rest of the day.

Hallelujah, the road march ended and I was able to sit. While sitting I was given a map and 8 more grid coordinates. The most awesome part about this was there were only 5 tasks... but you'd have to walk to all 8 points to ensure it was a point with a task, or just a dummy point that wasted your time. Really, this was not fun. Once again, 82 degrees.

My most hated part of Day 2, was when I stumbled upon my 2nd point. The task at my 2nd point was a PT test. After all the walking and rucking, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was run 2 miles. It took me 20 freaking minutes to run 2 miles! I scored a measly 212 points on the PT test! Immediately following the PT test, I was ushered to the oral board. Sweaty, out of breath and exhausted, somehow I scraped my way through oral board.

I finished the land navigation and tasks the second fastest out of the NCOs. It still took me 4 hours.
 

The winner of the competition will not be announced until Friday. That is two days away! I am not counting on winning, but I'm also not counting winning completely out. The Sergeant First Class who was running this event said all of our scores were very close, and this could really be any one's win.
 

So let's keep our fingers crossed I did well. I could really use a win (or even a second place), after all the losses I have endured at the EFMB.