Blanchfield Army Community Hospital Public Affairs
Fort Campbell, KY – Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) recognized its top Non-Commissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year during an award ceremony at the hospital, Thursday, October 8th, 2020.
Sgt. Logan Harris, assigned to the Adjutant’s Office, and Spc. Mark Braddock, assigned to the Emergency Center, were named NCO and Soldier of the Year, respectively. NCO of the Year is awarded to a Soldier in paygrade E-5 and above and Soldier of the Year is awarded to a Soldier in paygrade E-4 and below.
“We are extremely proud of all the candidates who participated in this five day competition. These Soldiers and NCOs had to step outside of their comfort zones of what they do on a daily basis and perform the tasks that a medic is required to do on the battlefield,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Santiago, BACH’s command sergeant major. “They gave it everything they had to be named the NCO and Soldier of the Year.”
The week-long competition administered and scored by hospital NCOs incorporated Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills, including day and night land navigation, a physical fitness test, ruck march, marksmanship, and combatives; plus medical skills required for Soldiers in medical military occupational specialties. Participants also completed a written exam and essay, oral board, and tested their skills in Combat Water Survival Training.
“Command Sgt. Major Santiago and his team put together an amazing competition. They challenged these Soldiers and win, lose or draw, they are all winners in the amount of training and confidence they gained through this process,” said Col. Patrick T. Birchfield, hospital commander.
“The competition was very tight and it just goes to show what a great group of Soldiers we have here,” Birchfield stated.
“Most of all I’d like to thank all the competitors here, they definitely made it hard. Soldiers and NCOs, we were all competing against each other. We all learned a lot, but there was no rivalry, we were helping each other out the entire time and really built a lot of camaraderie,” Harris said at the ceremony,” continued Birchfield.
“This is an amazing opportunity to be a part of such a phenomenal event,” said Braddock recognizing the high-caliber of his fellow competitors. “Having the opportunity to get out in the field and test our limits, find our strengths as well as confirm our weaknesses is what events like this are all about, so it’s honor to be here.”
Birchfield and Santiago both had praise for the hospital’s NCOs who worked with other units on Fort Campbell to plan and execute a competition that took competitors outside their clinical comfort zone and tested their Soldier skills.
Harris and Braddock will go on to represent BACH in the Regional Health Command-Atlantic Best Warrior Competition after the new year.
Other NCO participants were Staff Sgt. Alvin Korus and Sgt. Deborah Milutin from the Laboratory; Sgt. Seth Stephenson, assigned to Physical Therapy. Other Soldier participants were Spc. Juan De Paz, from the COVID Clinic; Spc. Christian Shemo, Emergency Center; and Spc. Justin Robinson, EMS. All won NCO or Soldier of the Quarter recognition this year.
Blanchfield supports the medical readiness of Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell. Soldiers and federal civil service employees assigned to the hospital’s Soldier and Patient Centered Medical Homes provide primary care service to more than 71,000 enrolled Soldiers, Retirees and their Family members.
Additionally, numerous specialty care, including emergency medicine, surgery, integrated disability evaluation, traumatic brain injury, behavioral health, women’s health and inpatient care and many services, are provided to more than 92,000 eligible beneficiaries within the 40-mile radius of Fort Campbell.
