Brian's competition starts tomorrow! I just went to the website and I am so proud of him! He has been working towards this for over two years. We counted all of the Boards he's been in and I think this is the eighth one! For those of you that don't know, last year he competed up to the USAREUR (all of Europe) level and then got 2nd place so he wasn't able to go to the Department of the Army competition. He was really bummed and jokingly said he was going to win all of the boards when we got to Hawaii so that he could go to DA this year. And he did!!
I talked to him today--they had the welcome dinner where they get to meet the Sergeant Major of the Army and the rest of the competitors. He will be up against 13 other people. He was only up against at most 6 people in all of the other competitions so that means there are that many more people to try to beat. It's a lot of pressure so pray for him--that he's able to keep a clear mind and focus on what he knows and what he's studied. And that he is a light to the people around him in the way he acts and conducts himself throughout this competition.
Tomorrow is one of the hardest events--the Board Appearance before all the Sergeant Majors. You have to walk in and stand at attention and then they drill you with questions. There is a huge manual of stuff they can ask you about--most of it really specific like the numbers of certain regulations or dates of important Army history. I don't know how he does it but he always does extremely well--he takes such pride in making sure his uniform is perfectly squared away and he goes the extra mile whenever he can. (For example, they sometimes ask you to sing the Army song (or the other command songs) and he always learns all of the verses whereas most people usually just know the first verse and the chorus. Brian says they always get blown away as he stands there in front of them belting out all the verses--he says they don't stop him just because they want to see if he really has memorized the whole thing. :)
Wow, didn't mean to write so much... I'm just so excited and so proud of Brian. He excels in whatever he puts his mind to. I have no doubt that he can win this but even if he doesn't, it's still a huge huge accomplishment just to get to compete at this level. He's amazing. And he's even more awesome at being a Daddy and a Husband. I love him so much! :)
I'm giving you the link. There already are pics up of the dinner. If you click on "Warriors" you can read about Brian (even though it's cheesy--they pick random things out of your bio to put on there). They should be putting his specific pictures under his name so keep checking this week. Also, Spc Batten is the guy that won the soldier part of the competition for the Pacific a few months ago. It was held here in Hawaii and I got to go to some of the evening events so we got to know him too. He's actually in Brian's same unit even though he lives in Japan so we're rooting for him for the soldier competition.
http://www.army.mil/bestwarrior/2007/index.html
I know this post is long and wordy... sorry! I'll try to put pics up of the kids tomorrow! :)
3 comments:
awww look at you all proud of your hubby!!! Brian is so cool!
Loved all the pictures, and we'll be praying and rooting for Brian too. Just had your Mom and Jocelyn here for a weekend. It was wonderful spending time with them. Your Mom is so blessed by you and the life you have chosen.
Kathy (DeYoung) Ryan
We loved reading about the Yoder family and all the exciting things happening. We loved the pictures. We will be praying for you all. Good luck Brian.
Love ya all
Kim And Alex
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