FORT BARFOOT, Va. –
Virginia Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Rocky Mount-based 229th Chemical Company, 1030th Transportation Battalion, 329th Regional Support Group and the Lynchburg-based Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team took top honors at the 2025 VaARNG Best Warrior Competition March 13-16, 2025, at Fort Barfoot, Virginia.
The 229th’s Spc. Nicholas Warren and the 1-116th’s Sgt. Ivo Garner were named the VaARNG’s Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer Of the Year year after four days of events designed to challenge the competitors’ strength, stamina, skills, knowledge and marksmanship.
“We’re looking for the best of the best,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Hawley, the VaARNG’s command sergeant major. “Competition drives Soldiers to do more and challenge themselves, and that makes us all better. It’s fun. You watch them grow together as a team - even though they’re six individuals, by the time they’re done they’ve got a bond for life.”
Garner said the event really tested the Soldiers’ endurance with a full schedule of challenges.
“It was a lot more packed with events than I expected, with a lot less downtime than I expected,” Garner said. “I felt like it kept us on our toes constantly. I felt like this competition was a very controlled and organic way to test people, by taking away any advantage to prepare. It was a great way to test what someone showed up with as opposed to what someone was able to do when they got there.”
“I found this competition very challenging,” said Warren. “It was an incredible test of my physical and mental fortitude. My fellow competitors definitely helped push me to do my best physically and to study much harder for the board.”
The competition began with a Combat Water Survival Test hosted at Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia, supported in part by cadets with the university’s ROTC program, followed by a written examination. The next day, the competitors tackled the Air Assault Obstacle Course before conducting Army Warrior Tasks and qualifying with the M4 rifle and M17 pistol.
Next, the Soldiers moved out to conduct an AT4 live-fire range, practicing with 9mm tracer rounds before getting the opportunity to live fire the shoulder-mounted, anti-tank weapon.
“My favorite part was the AT4 live-fire range,” said Warren. “That was a new experience that not many people get to have, it was really cool.”
After conducting day and night land navigation, the Soldiers were pushed to their limits with the Valor Run with several stations of physically-challenging tasks based on Medal of Honor recipients with Virginia ties. From there, they tackled a three-gun event, testing their marksmanship with the M4, M249 squad automatic weapon and the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle, all while moving a simulated battlefield casualty to safety and calling for a medical evacuation.
Aviators assigned to the Sandston-based 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment, 29th Infantry Division provided aerial support via a UH-60 Black Hawk, moving the Soldiers and their sponsors to a M240 live-fire range.
The last day of the competition began with a 12-mile ruck march, followed by appearance boards before the recognition ceremony naming Garner and Warren as winners.
Garner and Warren both will represent the VNG during the Region II Best Warrior Competition, coming up in May 2025.
“I am extremely excited to have the next two months to work on the things that I probably should have done better at, and hone the things that I did well,” said Garner.
“I look forward to the next phase,” Warren said. “It’s a bigger, more complex competition where I am sure we will get to do more cool things. I can’t wait to prepare myself for the competition ahead.”
Hawley offered some advice for other VaARNG Soldiers possibly considering competing in the 2026 BWC.
“Do it, you’ll challenge yourself, you’ll do cool things like shoot AT4s and ride on helicopters,” said Hawley. “There’s promotion opportunities because of this. There’s a whole bunch of good things that come out of it if you’ll just try and push yourself. You’ll also take some of these skills you’ve learned and go back to your unit and be that much more proficient in your job as a Soldier.”
Check out all photos from the competition at vngpao.info/yckv94yh.