116th’s Cooper takes top Soldier honors in National Guard Bureau’s Region Il Best Warrior Competition - May 10, 2024

Edgewood, Md. – After four days of competition, Spc. Carter Cooper and Staff Sgt. Alexander Wilkinson-Johnson were named the National Guard Bureau’s Region Il Best Warriors for 2024 in the soldier of the year and non-commissioned officer categories during the closing ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Ground-Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, on May 10, 2024.

Spc. Cooper, an infantryman in the Virginia Army National Guard, and Staff Sgt. Wilkinson-Johnson, an intelligence analyst in the Maryland Army National Guard, will be moving forward to compete in the National Best Warrior Competition in Vermont later this summer.

"Being a warrior to me means doing what is right when no one is looking and being willing to do and try your best within everything you do,” said Cooper. “I joined this competition because I wanted to display the Soldier that I knew I was and this was a perfect opportunity for me to display that.”

Read more from the Maryland National Guard on DVIDS at ngpa.us/29598.

Read more about Cooper and Virginia’s Best Warrior Competition at ngpa.us/29583.