Fort Benning chooses NCO, Soldier of Year

By Tawny Archibald Campbell/The Bayonet

FORT BENNING, Ga. (TRADOC News Service, March 31, 2005) – Staff Sgt. Justin Conner always wanted to be a Soldier, but that wasn’t enough – he wanted to prove to himself he was the best.

Conner did just that March 24 when he was chosen as Fort Benning’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year.

But he’s not done yet.

Assigned to B Company, 6th Ranger Training Battalion, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Conner has split his time between training for the Soldier of the Year competition and the Best Ranger Competition. He trains from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day for the Ranger competition, and when he’s not in the field, his head is buried in a book studying for the Army NCO of the Year board.

“I wanted to be in the Army because there is a lot of respect that goes with it,” the 28-year-old said. “I like to challenge myself. The 6th RTB gave me an opportunity to compete for the NCO of the Quarter, and I’m still going strong. I hope to have success in representing Fort Benning before the Combined Arms Center board in June.”

Along with juggling his job and training, he still manages to find time to spend with his wife Deanna and 5-year-old daughter, Peyton.

“It’s not easy, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “But it’s worth it.”

Capt. Jake Kurtzman, Conner’s company commander, describes Conner as the hardest working guy in his company.

“He’s dedicated himself to do this, and he studies all the time,” Kurtzman said. “At every board, they say he’s the most professional and most proficient there. He just wants to excel and represent his unit as best he can.

“He’s a master of his trade back at 6th RTB. He’s a great Ranger instructor and a good family man who is dedicated to his wife and daughter,” Kurtzman said.

Spending quality time with his family is at the top of his free-time activities, followed by playing football and basketball, boxing, camping and fishing.

But for now, most of those activities are on hold, at least until the Best Ranger Competition is over at the end of the month.

“You have to completely commit yourself to the goal,” Conner said. “This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, to compete against the best in my field.”

Kurtzman said the hard work and commitment Conner has shown is contagious in the unit.

“He’s a great example,” Kurtzman said. “We have another Soldier starting the NCO process, and he is trying to meet the standards Conner set. He’s a role model to other Soldiers, and they speak highly of him and want to be like him. I think he’ll reach his goal and be a command sergeant major someday.”

By Tawny Archibald Campbell/The Bayonet

FORT BENNING, Ga. (TRADOC News Service, March 31, 2005) – While growing up in Haiti, Pfc. Jeanelle Joseph remembers watching her cousin, a Marine, walk down the street with confidence and pride.

“She had respect, like she owned the world,” Joseph said. “I wanted that confidence.”

Now, as Fort Benning’s Soldier of the Year, Joseph has exemplified the Army Values and has the same confidence and pride she saw in her cousin. She has also proven to herself that the decisions she made two years ago have paid off.

Joseph didn’t join the military to gain awards or recognition. She joined because she wanted to be like her cousin, and she wanted to experience a sense of family and togetherness, something she never really had as a child. Her mother lives in Haiti, and her father in New York. She has a brother, but they were never really close, so the military seemed to be the perfect solution, she said.

“I like the idea of the family thing,” Joseph said. “When I went to basic and advanced individual training, I had that.”

Joseph joined the Florida Reserves in December 2002 and went to basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., a month later.

“I didn’t ask for a bonus or for the best [military-occupation specialty]; I just wanted to go,” Joseph said.

In June 2004, she decided to go active duty and was assigned to B Company, 2nd Battalion, 54th Infantry Regiment, at Fort Benning’s Sand Hill as a supply specialist.

“The Reserves was not challenging enough for me,” Joseph said. “I decided if I was going to do this, I was going to do it full-time.

“My mom doesn’t really understand what I do here because there is no military in Haiti. She doesn’t understand this is a career for me,” Joseph added. “She’s proud of me, but if I were to tell her today that I won Soldier of the Year, I would have to sit down and explain it to her, step by step, and she still wouldn’t get it.”

To prepare for the Soldier of the Year competition, Joseph had to pass five boards and went before 12 pre-boards. She “sacrificed” her Christmas Exodus to study for a January board, and she wakes at 3 a.m. to study.

“I even study in my sleep,” Joseph said. “I run, do pushups and sit-ups in my sleep, and then I wake up exhausted.”

However, Joseph said now she can see the fruits of her sacrifices and understands why she studied so hard.

“What really set her above the rest was her preparation, and she owes a lot of the credit to the NCOs who coordinated the boards, especially 1st Sgt. Cedric Burnes,” said Capt. Jeff Huston, Joseph’s company commander. “She’s in a company where she is the only [junior-enlisted] Soldier. Everyone else is an NCO. That’s why I really tip my hat to the NCOs who are in the company. She had a lot of help getting prepared, and she was more prepared than she thought she was.”

Within the past nine months, Joseph excelled and has been decorated with three Army Achievement Medals and two Army Commendation Medals.

“She is the type of Soldier I can tell to do something, and I know it’s getting done. She needs very little guidance,” Huston said. “She has great personality and is very flexible, very adaptable and very diverse. She’s an excellent Soldier, but at same time, she can separate herself by doing cross-stitch, reading and going for her associate’s degree. Her biggest strength is multi-tasking.”

Joseph is now preparing to compete in the next level of the Soldier of the Year competition, which will be held at the Combined Arms Center this June.

“She has already begun preparing for that,” Huston said. “She does foot marches on her own, she qualifies with her M-16 and is honing all her Soldier skills. I think her chances (of winning) are very good.”