Troy native in contest
Event set for July
CAMP SMITH TRAINING SITE, N.Y. » New York Army National Guard Sgt. Quentin Davis, an Astoria, Queens’s resident and a native of Troy, will be competing to be one of the top non-commissioned officers in the 340,000-member Army National Guard in July at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania.
Davis, a signal support systems specialists in the 69th Infantry’s Headquarters Company, was named Best Warrior in the northeast in the non- commissioned officer category which includes sergeants, staff sergeants, and sergeants first class, following a competition held May 1619 at the National Guard’s Camp Smith Training Site near Peekskill and the United States Military Academy at West Point.
The competition pitted the best soldiers from New England, New York and New Jersey against each other.
Davis won the New York state competition in April.
The winners of the National Guard competition will compete against the top soldiers from the Active Army and the Army Reserve to see who is best in the Army overall.
The Best Warrior competition tests a soldier’s military knowledge, military skills, physical fitness, marksmanship, and stamina.
Soldiers in the ranks of private, private 1st class, and specialist compete in the enlisted category. Soldiers in the ranks of sergeant, staff sergeant and sergeant first class, compete against other Army National Guard noncommissioned officers.
Davis joined the New York Army National Guard in 2009. He is a full-time member of the National Guard who has served in the 222nd Military Police Company, in Rochester; the 187th Signal Company in Farmingdale; and the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade in Latham before joining the 1st Battalion 69th Infantry at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York.
He deployed to Qatar in 20132014.
He has studied at Hudson Val- ley Community College in Troy.
He entered the Best Warrior competition to test his limits and improve his Soldier skills, Davis said.
He wants to take what he has learned in these competitions at the state, regional and now national level and help better train his soldiers, Davis said.
The evaluated tasks, specifically designed to mirror what soldiers must do in combat, included urban warfare simulations, a 12-mile forced march, Soldier tasks and battle drills, marksmanship and board interviews, physical fitness tests, and written exams.
The competition tested each soldier in various events such as:
• Ten “hands- on” Army warrior tasks.
• First aid on the battlefield. • Land navigation using a map and compass.
• The Army Physical Fitness Test.
• Day and night land navigation.
• Stress shooting, where soldiers must negotiate obstacles and perform physical tasks while shooting;
• And a military appearance board, answering questions of the Guard’s senior enlisted force.
The 12-mile road march was conducted at the United States Military Academy at West Point, after the soldiers were airlifted in on a UH- 60 Blackhawk helicopter.
The Soldiers also had the opportunity to compete and earn the German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge thanks to an arrangement with the German Army Liaison Office at the United States Military Academy.
The German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge is one of the few approved foreign awards American service members can wear.
Davis awards include the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the New York Soldier of the Year Award, the National Defense Service Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Air Assault Badge and the Rams Head Device awarded to soldiers who graduate from Winter Basic Military Mountain School.