Plains man wins warrior contest

Matt Unrau

Sgt. Ryan Brubaker is on the verge of being the best soldier in the Army…literally. After winning a grueling two-day competition in Savannah Georgia last week Sgt. Brubaker was christened Army National Guard’s Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year. “Essentially it is the culminating event for the National Guard,” says a proud Brubaker. “It’s like the Superbowl basically.”

Although it compares to the Superbowl in significance Brubaker describes the competition more like a grueling competition with a tortorous 12-mile road march(ruck march) serving as the highlight(or lowlight) of the competition where the soldiers have to walk, jog or run on the road carrying their packs and gun. Here’s the twist the competition officials didn’t tell the soldiers how far they were going or how soon they needed to get there. “You’re supposed to go until they tell you to stop,” says Brubaker.

It turned out well for Brubaker though as he crossed the distance in under three hours, only one of two people to accomplish this feat.

Brubaker describes the unknown in that race as an extreme mental challenge as you’re by yourself in the middle of the woods with nothing to keep you going but your heart.

It’s this big heart that fueled his win according to his wife Heidi who says many people watching the competition came up to her amazed by the heart and will that Brubaker possessed. “He’s just a really determined person. Once he sets his mind to something he’s determined to see it through,” says Heidi.

Although, his heart provided him with the fire to gut out the competition, Brubaker says his winning formula was his great support system. “The army refers to this as an individual competition, but it defintely is not because of all of the support that I got from my unit, my sponsor and my family,” says Brubaker. “I couldn’t do it on my own.”

His sponsor for the competition was Staff Sargeant Chad Leishman of Frenchtown who is a member of Brubaker’s unit stationed in Missoula. Brubaker credits the support of his sponsor for keeping him motivated in the months of training that preceeded the competition in Georgia. His unit also helped him with resources that he could use to practice for the competition including radio equipment, a GPS and extra ammunition for shooting practice.

This is something that B. Company, 1-163rd Cavalry Armored Battalion in Missoula is getting used to. Last year another soldier in their unit, Staff Sgt. Michael Noycemerino won the the same regional competition and then went on to win the whole national contest.

“It’s unprecedented…It’s never been done” says an ecstatic Robert McCrum, Company Commander of B. Company. “That will be a life altering event for Brubaker.”

Commander McCrum says he got constant updates via text message during the competition and soldiers in his company are still going down the halls yelling “booyah.” He says it’s the second year in a row that the National Guard has been allowed to compete in the challenge, and if they come away with two straight victories they will have bragging rights for a long time.

“Everyone is amazingly, amazingly proud of him,” says Commander McCrum who credits the culture and leadership of the Company for producing two back-to-back winners in the competition. “It’s just a group of guys that bust their butts, don’t cut corners and embody the army values.”

Because the competition included a variety of challenges like a modified army physical training test, water combat survival test and recovering and evaluating a claymore mine Brubaker says the key to winning the overrall competition was not necessarily winning each challenge but consistently performing high.

However, by the end of the competition Brubaker still did not know how well he did because he only saw 13 other soldiers who were the best of the best from around the country and had performed equally as well. It wasn’t until a week later that he got the news that he won. “I couldn’t believe it. I was relieved and phenomenally proud,” says Brubaker.

As for celebrating his victory beside a formal dinner Brubaker is ready to get busy training again for the national competition taking place sometime in September. “I was excited and extremely proud to have won, but now it is back to business,” says Brubaker.

Now that he is only one of two soldiers representing the whole National Guard Brubaker says there is an “inherent pressure.” However, he plans to use that pressure and channel it into his training program. He won’t be changing his training program, which conentrates heavily on studying military books, for the national competition taking place sometime in September, but he plans on ratcheting up the intensity.

This is Brubaker’s fourth year in the National Guard. He is working on his second degree at The University of Montana and plans on finishing his Forestry degree next year. He has served on two tours of duty in Iraq on “Iraqi Freedom” in July of 2004 and September of 2006.