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                         July 19, 2002

NCO, soldier earn honors

Quarterly board winners now competing in post Soldier/NCO of the Year

By Spc. Nate Jastrzemski
Staff Writer

The West Point Soldier and non-commissioned officer of the fourth quarter board was held July 2, and the winners were treated to the standard quarterly fare of AAFES coupons, West Point Club coupons, a $100 savings bond, a coin from Command Sgt. Maj. Mary Sutherland and other prizes.

They are also participating in the Post Soldier/NCO of the Year board, now underway.

Sgt. Corey Fairchild
A member of the West Point Honor Guard Platoon in the Military Police Company, Fairchild grew up in Harpersville, N.Y., and served with the 1st Infantry Division in Wersburg, Germany before coming to USMA.

While in Germany, he successfully won two company-level and one division-level NCO of the quarter boards.

Fairchild said he usually prepares himself for a board simply by reading manuals and being up-to-date on his Army knowledge, but the types of studying he does here is different from other Army installations.

"In Germany I was with a division unit that deployed a lot, so many of the board tasks were situational -- instead of reciting the steps for disassembling an M-16, for example, we would actually have to perform the task. Here most of the questions are right out of the books, so studying helps a lot," he said.

Fairchild is a self-described sports lover, and spends much of his free time playing whatever sports he can while balancing it with his family and education. He is currently enrolled with St. Thomas Aquinas College and is majoring in education.

Spc. Harry Banchs
Hailing from Queens, New York City, Banchs attended Aviation High School in Long Island and has served at Forts Benning and Bragg before coming closer to home at West Point -- where he began in Headquarters and Headquarters Company and has now moved into the Military Police Honor Guard Platoon.

Though he is Airborne qualified and leaves for Air Assault School later this month, he admits to being intimidated by the board process.

"I was always terrified of boards -- a week before my platoon board I couldn’t even remember my name," he said. "The day before my first board I studied for 12 hours straight. When I got there I couldn’t remember a thing."

He said going to MP school helped him a lot with communications skills and assisted in ridding him of his fear of boards.

"Now I just study for about 30 minutes and take a break. Sometimes I make recordings of things I’ll have to know and play them over and over while I sleep."

Banchs is currently concentrating on correspondence courses, but is looking forward to earning a degree in criminal justice.