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Published On: Oct 08, 2007 11:15 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Oct 08, 2007 11:15 AM
Best Warrior of the Year Continues
My husband, Brian Hancock , participated in the 2007
Army-wide Best Warrior of the Year Competition.
Everyone has been asking me how Brian has done
now that the best Warrior of the Year Competition is over. For those of you who
don't know, my husband participated in the 2007 Best Warrior of the Year
Competition from Oct. 1st-5th at Fort Lee Virginia. During the competition he
was usually competing until midnight and then had to start the competition again
at 4AM. He was getting on by with about 2-4 hours of sleep a
night!
Apparently the worst day of the competition was day 4 when they had a 10 mile long ruck march in 85% humidity and about 80-85 degrees. It might not sound too hard to you, but imagine having 50-70 lbs in your ruck sack and full plate body armor as you had to march 10 miles as quickly as you could. This means a combination of running, jogging and a forced march. Brian was telling me that he could hardly breathe and that he ran out of water.
The last day had some interesting events. The first event Brian was in was a team competition with his assigned NCO from the Army reserves, Sgt. Chisholm. Unfortunately, poor Sgt. Chisholm had barely recovered from retching after the ruck march yesterday and had missed the night navigation course because he was so ill. So at 4AM they were told to break into a room and clear it. You can see a picture below of my husband kicking down the door and Chisholm right behind him. As Brian kicked down the door, an explosive went off and smoke filled the room. Poor Sgt. Chisholm started shooting and the poor hostage was shot (with fake ink pellets). So my poor husband and Chisholm didn't get any points for that event. I must say that the picture looks pretty cool though!
Spc. Hancock and Sgt. Chisholm kicking down the door in a mystery event. Courtesy of the Army.
There were a total of 6 mystery events that day. They were put into a humvee that turned upside down with them in it! Both my husband and his partner had to get out of the humvee as quickly as possible before "insurgents" could blow up the remainder of the vehicle. The contestants also had to look at three different army uniforms and try to figure out what was wrong with them. (Brian did well on that one.) And they reassembled weapons.
Here's a picture of Brian reassembling a Crew-Serve Gun. He told me that he was terribly tired while the picture was taken and I think it shows. Courtesy of the Army.
The final and most difficult event that day was hand-to-hand combat. I was really hoping that my husband wouldn't have to go hand-to-hand and wrestle with the 1997 European Martial Arts Champion, but he did! Brian said that they drew straws and he ended up with the one contestant that he really didn't want to face. My husband went up against Cpl. Mihai Mocanu who was 60 lbs heavier,a foot taller and was all muscle. Once Mocanu got my husband in a choke hold it was all over. Brian tells me that his throat has an ugly bruise on it now and he wasn't able to speak correctly for a few hours after the event.
I don't have a picture of Brian fighting Cpl. Mocanu yet, but here's a picture of Cpl. Mocanu caught in Pfc. Patrick Murphy's choke-hold. Courtesy of the Army.
The winners of these events (one soldier and one noncommissioned officer) will be announced tonight (October 8, 2007) at a Pentagon dinner in Arlington, VA. Brian doesn't think that he won, however I think that simply competing in an event with men and a woman 15 years his junior and besting all of the other soldiers in three pre-trail Army Reserve competitions was amazing enough.
Apparently the worst day of the competition was day 4 when they had a 10 mile long ruck march in 85% humidity and about 80-85 degrees. It might not sound too hard to you, but imagine having 50-70 lbs in your ruck sack and full plate body armor as you had to march 10 miles as quickly as you could. This means a combination of running, jogging and a forced march. Brian was telling me that he could hardly breathe and that he ran out of water.
The last day had some interesting events. The first event Brian was in was a team competition with his assigned NCO from the Army reserves, Sgt. Chisholm. Unfortunately, poor Sgt. Chisholm had barely recovered from retching after the ruck march yesterday and had missed the night navigation course because he was so ill. So at 4AM they were told to break into a room and clear it. You can see a picture below of my husband kicking down the door and Chisholm right behind him. As Brian kicked down the door, an explosive went off and smoke filled the room. Poor Sgt. Chisholm started shooting and the poor hostage was shot (with fake ink pellets). So my poor husband and Chisholm didn't get any points for that event. I must say that the picture looks pretty cool though!
Spc. Hancock and Sgt. Chisholm kicking down the door in a mystery event. Courtesy of the Army.
There were a total of 6 mystery events that day. They were put into a humvee that turned upside down with them in it! Both my husband and his partner had to get out of the humvee as quickly as possible before "insurgents" could blow up the remainder of the vehicle. The contestants also had to look at three different army uniforms and try to figure out what was wrong with them. (Brian did well on that one.) And they reassembled weapons.
Here's a picture of Brian reassembling a Crew-Serve Gun. He told me that he was terribly tired while the picture was taken and I think it shows. Courtesy of the Army.
The final and most difficult event that day was hand-to-hand combat. I was really hoping that my husband wouldn't have to go hand-to-hand and wrestle with the 1997 European Martial Arts Champion, but he did! Brian said that they drew straws and he ended up with the one contestant that he really didn't want to face. My husband went up against Cpl. Mihai Mocanu who was 60 lbs heavier,a foot taller and was all muscle. Once Mocanu got my husband in a choke hold it was all over. Brian tells me that his throat has an ugly bruise on it now and he wasn't able to speak correctly for a few hours after the event.
I don't have a picture of Brian fighting Cpl. Mocanu yet, but here's a picture of Cpl. Mocanu caught in Pfc. Patrick Murphy's choke-hold. Courtesy of the Army.
The winners of these events (one soldier and one noncommissioned officer) will be announced tonight (October 8, 2007) at a Pentagon dinner in Arlington, VA. Brian doesn't think that he won, however I think that simply competing in an event with men and a woman 15 years his junior and besting all of the other soldiers in three pre-trail Army Reserve competitions was amazing enough.
Posted: Mon - October 8, 2007 at 10:45 AM