Kroll earns several distinguished Army awards
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
Sgt. 1st Class Steven Kroll, a former Posen resident and a 16 year Army veteran, has taken part in a prestigious competition the last few months and has come away with some amazing honors. Kroll went in to have fun and as a way to challenge himself. He was more than up to the challenge as he earned the honor of Noncommissioned Officer of the Year from his unit in June and went on to win the U.S. Army Special Operations Command?s (USASOC) level of the competition last week at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
He will continue on to represent USASOC at the Department of Army 2008 NCO and Solider of the Year competition at Fort Lee, Virginia.
?I never thought it would go as far as it has,? stated Kroll in an e-mail this week. ?The reason we hold this competition is?to highlight to the Army and the civilian community some of our top soldiers who are each and every day out there doing great things, not only for the Army, but for the nation,? stated Command Sgt. Maj. Parry Baer, in a USASOC press release.
BEGINNING AT the battalion level, each unit across the Army holds yearly competitions to determine their best soldier and NCO. The competition includes the full spectrum of USASOC soldiers, from Special Forces, civil affairs, psychological operations, Rangers and support soldiers. Soldiers are required to demonstrate a variety of military and leadership skills. The skills cover the core elements of soldier training including a physical fitness test, live fire weapons qualification, land navigation, a comprehensive general subjects exam, written essay and warrior-task testing. Kroll, who is the son of John and Mary Kroll, works at the Special Forces Qualification Course. ?Basically, what I do is teach future Green Berets everything that they need to know about weapons both U.S. and foreign weapon systems,? he said. The three-day competition last week pitted Kroll against 13 of the best soldiers from their respective units.
?YOU HAVE so many great and honorable soldiers that work inside this command that its hard to say who is ?the best,? I just pushed myself a little harder then everyone else did for this event and to have this title is an honor and a privilege to say the least.? Kroll has spent many hours preparing for the competition. ?I prepared by getting a rather large study manual off-line (about 350 pages) that is commonly used by promotion and selection boards and began studying my butt off, about three to four hours a day,? said Kroll. ?As for the studying portion of it my son, Zachary, was a great help. We studied so much together he was beginning to memorize the material by accident.?
He said there were many topics to try and become familiar with and that learning all the information was nearly impossible. His physical program included running up to 20 miles a week and maintaining a six-and-a-half minute mile for about three miles.
?Then I would drop it down to about a seven minute mile pace,? said Kroll. ?On the days that I didn’t run I would bike about 12 miles in about 50 minutes just to take it easy. I would do a relatively strenuous work out of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and lifting weights. Each day I would work out for about 2-3 hours. It is the area of the competition he excelled at the most.
?I RUN ALONG with lot of our students through our physical training program at work
Kroll will represent the unit at different social functions and the U.S. Army Convention in Washington, D.C. He has one more test to go, though, as representatives of the major Army commands will be competing against each other at the end of September to see who will become the 2008 Army NCO and Soldier of the Year.