WAYNE F. WILLIAMS
While on tour of duty in Vietnam, I won the prestigious award of Soldier of the Month. To say the least, it was one of the toughest places in the world to be recognized for military contributions. This accomplishment happened simultaneously in the midst of being preoccupied with helping resolve a military conflict.
However, selection for participating in the running for this award may have come by way of name recognition and credibility towards becoming a future leader. As a matter of fact, I won numerous stateside local competition awards before my deployment overseas along with those officers and local competitive evaluation judges. Therefore, I felt comfortable putting my name in to go before the review board despite the hostile environment.
Qualifications of the review board include, but are not limited to: exceptional job performance, understanding of their section, team, company's mission (and higher: battalion, brigade, Army if necessary), impeccable uniform and presence, attitude, technical and tactical competency, leadership qualities, and knowledge of current events and how those events impacted our unit or Nation.
In the end, this experience can never be duplicated nor taken for granted. We all owe our gratitude to those brave men and women who set the bar for excellence, regardless of the obstacles in front of them.
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