FORT CARSON, Co.  –   When the 2023 Medical Readiness Command-West Best Medic Competition winning team crossed the finish line, they did so with the support of more than 150 cadre and support staff who planned and executed every phase of the competition.

Evans Army Community Hospital hosted the 2023 competition Sept. 25-29 on behalf of MRC-West, and planning for the event began in April, 2023.

“When we were tasked to host Best Medic we knew that we had minimal manning and minimal resources here at EACH, so we knew we were going to have to get creative and leverage relationships to make this competition the best one yet,” said 2nd Lt Scott Scheuer, the Officer in Charge of the 2023 MRC-West Best Medic competition.

In order to do that, Scheuer and his BMC team reached out to their contacts at a variety of units around Fort Carson to request support.

“We had to find a way to continue to support real-world hospital operations at EACH, while executing a world-class BMC,” Scheuer said. “Thankfully, we received outstanding support from 75+ Soldiers across 13 MRC-West medical treatment facilities who were instrumental in helping us conduct the mission.”

According to Sgt. Maj. Mike Woolley, the 2023 MRC-West Best Medic competition sergeant major, “those MTFs sent us their best and brightest. There’s no way we could have done this without them.”

Another key factor in executing the competition was minimizing impact to the delivery of healthcare in the medical treatment facilities that sent Soldiers to participate.

“We really want to thank the numerous civilian staff at our MTFs across the region who seamlessly kept the mission going, taking care of the most important patients in America while the military members executed the Best Medic Competition,” said Master Sgt. Justin Cauthen, the BMC senior medical advisor. “I am personally blown away that this organization was able to put on a world-class competition without losing focus on our most sacred mission.”

Scheuer says that they also received key contributions in the form of personnel and equipment, particularly tactical vehicles and aviation support, from Fort Carson units like the 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade, the 88th Readiness Division, and the 404th Aviation Support Battalion.

“We were so fortunate to be able to leverage pre-existing relationships with our mission partners across Fort Carson,” Scheuer said. “Their support helped us provide a realistic, authentic combat experience for our competitors. We can’t thank them enough.”

This support was particularly important to the BMC Cadre because they knew they wanted to make this Best Medic Competition one the competitors wouldn’t soon forget.

“Historically, Best Medic is a lane-driven competition where competitors are tested on their ability to complete specific tasks as directed by the competition cadre,” Scheuer said. “However, we wanted to make this Best Medic Competition as realistic as possible, so we developed the competition into a deployment scenario that would force competitors to think about what the appropriate response should be to a given situation, rather than telling them exactly what they needed to do.”

As a result, the BMC Team developed the competition around three phases: pre-deployment, deployment, and re-deployment/reintegration, all spread out over four training days.

During the pre-deployment phase (Day 0), competitors were told that they had been tasked to deploy and were made to accomplish the variety of tasks necessary to be ready – Army Combat Fitness Test, weapons qualification, etc. Competitors started out Day 1 of the competition with a 6.5 mile ruck march followed by completion of an obstacle course. Right after that competitors were given a fragmentary order, or FRAGORD, directing them to deploy via military airlift to a deployed location.

Upon arrival at the deployed location, BMC Teams went right into a Tactical Combat Casualty Care scenario where they were required to find, treat and transport casualties for follow-on care. Creating a realistic training scenario required a lot of effort and support behind the scenes from the cadre and support staff.

“We based the scenario on support to large scale combat operations,” Scheuer said. “Our goal was to limit delays in the competition, make the events as realistic as possible and test our medics’ ability to manage heavy casualties, while accomplishing the mission in a timely manner.”

The change in format required competitors to rely on their experience and judgment to determine how best to respond to a given scenario, according to Scheuer.

One example of this is a Spot Report, which is used to report timely intelligence or status regarding events that could have an immediate and significant effect on current or future operations.

“In a lane-based competition, medics are tasked to complete a SPOTREP,” Scheuer said. “So instead of just telling competitors to do one, we provided a fragmentary order that would require them to think about what the appropriate response would be, just as they would in a real-world scenario. Just like every other Soldier, we expect our medics to be able to operate autonomously. A scenario-based Best Medic Competition tests our Soldiers’ ability to accomplish tasks with little to no supervision.”

Upon completion of the deployment phase, BMC Teams crossed the finish line and were cheered on by cadre and staff, followed by equipment turn in and preparation for the awards ceremony.

The Best Medic Competitors were forced to adjust to the change in format, but Staff Sgt Brooks Carroll, who won the competition with his teammate, Staff Sgt. Eric Smith, said that he appreciated the changes.

“The Competition was very grueling and physically demanding,” Carroll said. “Utilizing operations orders and fragmentary orders made it a more realistic and immersive experience. I think it really increased the training value and realism.”

Carroll and Smith, who are both assigned to EACH, will represent MRC-West and EACH in the Army Best Medic Competition in January, 2024.

Command Sgt Maj. Jeremy Brockway, the EACH Command Sergeant Major, also expressed his appreciation for all the hard work the BMC Team did to successfully execute the competition.

“Our Team did an outstanding job - from the preparation, to the planning, and then to the execution,” Brockway said. “There were hiccups along the way, as with any operation, but they bounced through them, learned from them and executed flawlessly.”

Brockway said the key to their success started with picking the right people for the team, putting them in the right positions and then letting that team grow and work together.

An added benefit is that the BMC also provided great learning opportunities in field craft, operations planning and leadership for the Soldiers who supported the competition from across MRC-West.
Brockway says that a scenario-based Best Medic Competition should be the standard moving forward.

“I think this needs to be the only way we do these competitions,” Brockway said. “We replicate what we see, right? We train as we fight, so as we continue to incorporate that in these competitions, our medics get that experience as they would see it if they deployed.”