Vadnais Heights man up for Soldier of the Year

A Vadnais Heights man will compete to be Soldier of the Year in the Army National Guard this summer after winning a regional contest.

[Trent]

To be book smart is one thing, but how much time did he spend doing board things when he should have been training with his unit to create combat effectiveness, especially with an impending deployment. Him answering questions in effect could harm the effectiveness of his entire unit and possibly damage unit cohesion or possibly lead to causing an injury to fellow soldiers. If it weren't for a pending deployment, I am totally thrilled for the young man and wish him continued success.

[Tom]

Maybe his prize should be not going to Iraq.

[lobster]

Trent wrote:

To be book smart is one thing, but how much time did he spend doing board things when he should have been training with his unit to create combat effectiveness, especially with an impending deployment. Him answering questions in effect could harm the effectiveness of his entire unit and possibly damage unit cohesion or possibly lead to causing an injury to fellow soldiers. If it weren't for a pending deployment, I am totally thrilled for the young man and wish him continued success.

He's in the Guard. The training they do is on weekends with a couple extended MUTA's followed up by a longer Annual Training prior to leaving for mob training. I doubt he missed out on much, and it probably adds to unit moral.

[Grandmaster G]

I bet most soldiers would think this is a joke. They are taught brotherhood. Equality fighting for a just cause. Abandon the singling out of one person.

[PV2 Nagel]

HOOOOAH Spc Wiernasz deserves it. He did traing for the competition during the week full time and still trained with the company when not competing. Sgt Heileman, who received state NCO of the year, was with him the whole way. Best part is the fact that they are in the same platoon.

[PV2 Nagel]

Trent wrote:

To be book smart is one thing, but how much time did he spend doing board things when he should have been training with his unit to create combat effectiveness, especially with an impending deployment. Him answering questions in effect could harm the effectiveness of his entire unit and possibly damage unit cohesion or possibly lead to causing an injury to fellow soldiers. If it weren't for a pending deployment, I am totally thrilled for the young man and wish him continued success.

The soldiers of 950th Clearance Company missed little if any training due to the competition. Most of our training during the past year was spent training the 32nd Brigade and they were around for that so know the facts before commenting