HANCOCK COUNTY — Greenfield’s Brian Evans, a husband and a father of three, is in the midst of a political campaign for the State Representative House District 53 seat. Still, he hasn’t missed a minute of his National Guard duties, where he’s earned the rank of sergeant. That included competing in the 2024 Best Warrior Competition (BWC) March 15-17 at Camp Atterbury.
“My chain of command, they have to put up a competitor, someone who is really going to give it their all, work hard and maybe even win, so every company put up someone and our leadership selected who they wanted and asked me if I would do it,” Evans said.
While Evans was thrilled to take on the challenge, he said that the competition was one of the hardest things he has had to do in a long time.
This year’s BWC was a 13-event, three-day competition testing soldiers in a variety of skills. From written exams and appearance boards to ruck marches and weapons proficiency, the soldiers were vigorously tested to see who would come out on top.
The contest was between the strongest national guards soldiers and lasted a full three days and nights in order to select the most qualified to move on and represent Indiana during Region IV competition at Camp Dodge, Iowa.
“It turned out well and while I sadly didn’t win the whole thing, I learned a lot,” Evans said.
The competition consisted of the Army Combat Fitness Test, M4 Zero-Qualification, M17 Qualification, Transition Shoot (2-Gun), Land Navigation (day), 8-mile ruck march, written exam, essay, Obstacle Course, Army warrior task lanes, personal appearance board and two mystery events.
“Who you are becoming is more important than who you were,” Sgt. Maj. Allen Thomas said in a release. “Best Warrior allows soldiers to really look at themselves and move their military career to the next level. As long as you compete and you are little better than yesterday you will have a greater tomorrow.”
During day 1, Evans and the others took a written exam, went through the obstacle course, participated in drills on gas and medical lanes, and he ended the evening with an 8-mile hike while carrying a 35-pound pack.
Day 2, Evans noted, was a blast. He spent time competing on both the rifle and pistol ranges, two-gun shoot-and-move challenges, AT4 rocket launcher range competition, and land navigation.
Day 3 was early Sunday morning with the official Army Combat Fitness Test and then the competitors prepared for their appearance boards.
“I did pretty well in some of the events like shooting the rocket, the navigation and the ruck march but some of the other competitors, they were just really, really good soldiers,” Evans said. “We were also competing against a couple of members from the Slovakian forces.”
Evans, who is now 30 years old said there is a big difference in his competitive 22-year-old self and who he is now.
“They had some young bucks there and they were pretty competitive,” Evans said. “I did notice a difference in my body as opposed from years past.”
While Evans noted he had done some similar types of competitions when he was in the United States Marines, he did that when he was in his early 20s.
“That was more physical events where in this Best Warrior Competition there was a lot more tactical events,” Evans said.
He said his takeaway from the competition was the overall honor of participating.
“We were all selected by our battalion from over 10,000-plus soldiers from across the state to take part and that means something,” Evans said. “All of us being there, that was a big, big honor.”
Out of 28 competitors, the two guardsmen to come out on top this year were 76th Brigade A 1-293rd, Staff Sgt. Joseph Waters from Michigantown, and 76th Brigade B Co 776 BEB’s Spc. Nicholas Reed from Elwood.
Even though it was a major individual competition, Evan said he was always willing to help his fellow soldiers out.
“A lot of the soldiers competing don’t do some of the tactical or navigational things we had to do on a regular basis, so there were times, when it got dark, during the land navigation when we were in a thick forest in the middle of the night were I ended up helping some other soldiers who were panicking and lost,” Evans said. “It felt like the right thing to do.”
In the end, Evans said he was happy because he had another chance to sharpen his skill set, and officials who ran the competition acknowledged that kind of positive view in a release.
“If technology is going to be a push in our future fight, guess what it comes down to,” Maj. Gen. R. Dale Lyles, the Adjutant General of Indiana said. “It comes down to the will, determination and intestinal fortitude to fight and defeat an adversary. After seeing these competitors, I know when I retire my family, my kids and my grand kids will be protected.”
