Hunt Nabs First Place in MRDC Best Medic Event
Capt. Logan Hunt was named the winner of the annual U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command's Best Medic Competition during an award ceremony at the Fort Detrick Auditorium on November 10. The grueling three-day event, which was split between sites at Fort Detrick and Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, featured a series of high-intensity tests designed to gauge participants' physical fitness and medical care capacity in a variety of severe and austere environments.
"It's a shock," said Hunt, who serves as the aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Tony McQueen, Commanding General of USAMRDC and Fort Detrick, following the award ceremony. "It was a heavy lift for sure, but I signed up for this event to help prepare me for what I want to do in the future – I wanted to put myself in that mindset."
The event serves as a way to build Soldier readiness, resilience and skill in battlefield situations. Beginning with a staging of the Army Combat Fitness Test in the pre-dawn hours of November 7, Soldiers then participated in a the Army's Combat Water Survival Test before departing to FIG for a 72-hour gauntlet of medical lanes, weapons qualification events and land navigation courses, among several other efforts.
An Ohio native nearing his fifth full year of Army service, Hunt stated that while he excelled in the physical aspects of the event – notably the lengthy ruck marches and the vaunted obstacle course – he admitted he needs to improve in the study and application of his medical skills to achieve his professional goals.
"The medical lanes were probably my worst event, to be honest," said Hunt, offering a sober assessment of his performance. "To get ready for the next step, I really need to start from the bottom and get better."
Hunt was joined in the winner's circle by Spc. Juan Garcia, a combat medic specialist from MRDC's U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, who scored second place in the event. Both men are scheduled to compete against Soldiers from the larger Army in the 2023 CSM Jack L. Clark, Jr. U.S. Army Best Medic Competition, which is scheduled to be held at Fort Polk, Louisiana in January of next year. If Garcia cannot secure his Expert Field Medical Badge prior to the event – a requirement to participate – Hunt will instead be joined at the Army-wide event by third place winner Staff Sgt. Charles Garcia, a respiratory specialist based out of MRDC's Army Institute of Surgical Research.
"We're all medics when it matters," said MRDC Command Sgt. Maj. Kyle Brunell, who served as the host for the award ceremony, prior to naming the winners. "That's what this competition was about. In order to provide your medical skills, you have to be competent in your skills on the battlefield."
For overall winner Hunt, the event was not only a chance to test his own aptitude, it was an opportunity to judge his professional growth against those in the rest of the command.
"Everyone has their different specialties, but the team still meshes together despite the fact we're all competing against each other," said Hunt. "It really shows what you can do when you're confronted with situations you're not used to."