U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Warrior Competition

U.S. Army units from across Europe converge to compete for the title of Best Warrior. The week-long event tests Soldier skills, endurance, fortitude and resourcefulness as well as intellectual and problem-solving capabilities. Officers, noncommissioned officers and junior enlisted Soldiers compete in separate categories and are evaluated on general military knowledge, physical fitness and common military tasks.

While some of the competition tasks are standard such as the Army Physical Fitness Test, written test, marksmanship, ruck march, land navigation and command sergeants major board; some of the challenges such as chemical defense and medical tasks - added to the stress of fitting everything into a few short days - makes the competition extra tough.

Winners in the NCO and junior enlisted categories will advance to represent U.S. Army Europe and Africa at the Army Best Warrior Competition at Fort Lee, Virginia.

For more imagery, videos and news visit our DVIDS feature page at: U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Warrior Competition

The Competitors

2021 U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Warrior Competitors.

EBWC - Imagery

EBWC Videos

Video by Kyle Davis

The Big Picture: Operation Blue Jay

Army University Press

June 20, 2023 | 28:22

111.TV.227 – Pituffik Space Base – This episode of The Big Picture focuses on the secret construction of an air base near Thule, Greenland in the early 1950s. Built during the Cold War, the base was to provide the U.S. a home for long-range bombers closer to the Soviet Union and China. Staged at Norfolk, Virginia, Operation Blue Jay moved over $125 million worth of equipment by ship to the remote Greenland site. Once the convoy arrived through ice-packed waters, soldiers began working on port facilities and shelter. Working expeditiously during the short summer season to avoid facing temperatures of fifty below, the Corps of Engineers built an expansive air base nine-hundred miles north of the Artic Circle.

Thule (pronounced too-lee) Air Base is the most northern U.S. military outpost at 76 degrees north latitude. The facility was operated by the U.S. Air Force from 1951 until operations transferred to the U.S. Space Force in 2019.  On 6 April 2022, Thule Air Base was renamed Pituffik (pronounced bee-do-FEEK) Space Base.  The name Pituffik was suggested by the governments of Greenland and Denmark to acknowledge the traditional Greenlandic/Indigenous name where the base is located. Pituffik was also the name of the village that was displaced in the 1950s for the construction of the base.