JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas –
Spc. Bryce Falgiani is the Soldier category winner of the 2018 Joint Base San Antonio Best Warrior Competition.
Falgiani will head to Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, in October, where he will test his mettle against the toughest Soldiers, E-4 and below, in the U.S. Army while representing the U.S. Army Installation Management Command.
At the JBSA level, he and his peers competed in a series of events over six days, including a 19-mile ruck, stress shooting, building a Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System, or SINGARS, from scratch, and a reconnaissance mission, among other events. Fifteen Soldiers and NCOs attempted the grueling tasks.
Falgiani attributes this win to his military training and the honor of facing increasingly tougher competitors in the preliminary rounds of Best Warrior Competition.
“It’s the small things that have helped me, like learning how to pack a ruck the right way. It makes all the difference,” he said. “If you put all the weight at the bottom that will mess up your back bad and you won’t make it far.”
“This was a really hard competition that we just did and it says a ton about his character, because not everybody stayed in the competition. He had to gut out a lot of really difficult tasks and he wouldn’t quit,” said IMCOM Command Sgt. Maj. Melissa Judkins. “He just kept going, exceling and exceeding, it tells you a lot about the individual.”
The name “Best Warrior” implies the physical rigor associated with the challenges of the competition, but the rugged professional says the key to success is staying mentally tough when fatigue hits.
Lt. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, IMCOM commanding general, knows Soldiers do not avoid arduous circumstances, they thrive in them.
“You really have to have a mentality that you are going to make it to the end and it is only a couple of days,” Falgiani said. “If you don’t have that mentality and you keep thinking ‘this will never end’ then you won’t make it.”
He said wearing the IMCOM patch at the Department of Army competition will be an honor.
“It means a lot to represent IMCOM at the final level, because we did not have an IMCOM Soldier win at this level last year or the year prior. It is nice that I can be the one to break that cycle, go forward and represent IMCOM,” Falgiani said.
As a military policeman at U.S. Army Garrison West Point, New York, Falgiani has the confidence of the IMCOM Training Directorate, supports the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
“IMCOM is well represented by Spc. Falgiani, whose performance was driven and inspired by all competitors,” said Vincent Grewatz, IMCOM Training director.
Falgiani was awarded an Army Commendation Medal for his achievement.
“We had a really hard competition at the IMCOM directorate level, the IMCOM level and this level,” Judkins said. “We are so excited to have him win and go forward. It is phenomenal and exciting. His effort is the epitome of the rugged professionals IMCOM supports every day.”