Newly promoted Sgt. Dylan Tucker is accustomed to exercising his skills as a flutist and piccolo player in the U.S. Army Reserve’s 198th Army Band.

But when he competed in the division-level Best Squad Competition this past March in California, Tucker put an entirely different skillset to the test.

“I decided to take part in this competition to better myself as a leader in my unit,” said Tucker, a student at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. “I love challenging myself mentally and physically, and this competition was the perfect opportunity to do that.

“I believe it is important to take part in competitions like this in order to test our basic Soldier skills and to make sure we are always ready as United States Army Reserve Soldiers,” added Tucker, who was crowned 99th RD Soldier of the Year based on the competition results. “It is also a huge learning opportunity to be able to do things you have never done before.”

The BSC was initiated by former Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston to replace the Best Warrior Competition, according to Sgt. Maj. Paul E. Caswell, 99th RD interim command sergeant major.

“The Sergeant Major of the Army back in 2022 had come up with the concept of the Best Squad Competition and he wanted to kick it off in September 2022, which he did, and his intent was to get after the importance of building cohesive teams,” Caswell said. “Those teams would be highly trained, disciplined, and mentally and physically tough.”

The competition in California consisted of five-dozen Soldiers from 10 Army Reserve general-officer commands who competed in various events such as the Field Leadership Reaction Course, rappel tower, rifle and pistol ranges, land navigation course, medical lanes, grenade range, and Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain course.

The BSC also focused on mission command, which Army doctrine defines as, “the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander's intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations.”

“Mission command – it's decision making, it's not centralized, and it's pushed down to the subordinate leaders - i.e., squad leaders - in execution of said decision,” Caswell explained. “Squads go out and exercise mission command within the confines of the left and right boundaries of the commander’s intent – purpose, key task, end state – and then they operate with mission command underneath that commander’s intent.”

Tucker will be moving on to the Army Reserve-level BSC scheduled to be held here in late August.

“I hope to be able to make life-long friends and memories at this competition, and to be able to bring knowledge back to my home unit,” Tucker said.