Stokes wins Division NCO of the Year competition

By SFC Pete Mayes
Public Affairs Officer, 101st Sustainment Brigade
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

FORT CAMPBELL, KY, July 29, 2009 – A Soldier with the 101st Sustainment Brigade (“Lifeliners”) was chosen as the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year.
SGT Shayse Stokes of the 194th Military Police Company, 716th Military Police Battalion, won the competition after returning from a 13-month deployment to Iraq. He returned from block leave and was selected to represent the battalion at the Sustainment Brigade competition in June.
He then competed and won the Fourth Quarter 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) NCO of the Quarter competition July 8-9. He was given one week to prepare for the Division NCO of the Year Board, which ran July 15-17.
SGT Stokes outlasted his fellow NCOs in the competition, which included multiple tasks on weapons, map reading, air assault operations, and first aid. The competitors also wrote an essay on what this year’s Army Slogan, “The Year of the NCO” meant to them, and competed in a formal board, which tested their Army Knowledge.
SGT Stokes has been in the Army for seven years, and has served in numerous assignments, including two tours to Iraq, and a homeland deployment in support of Hurricane Katrina.