NY Army Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Blount, a Liverpool resident, awarded Expert Soldier Badge

New U.S. Army skills badge has only been awarded to 950 Soldiers since its creation in 2019

Hancock Air National Guard Base, Syracuse (10/14/2021) — New York Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Blount, a Liverpool resident, is one of the first four New York National Guard Soldiers to earn the U.S. Army's newest skills badge.

Blount and three other Soldiers were awarded the Expert Soldier Badge on October 1 at Fort Drum, following a week of testing conducted by the 10th Mountain Division.

The four men joined another 950 Soldiers across the Army who have earned the new badge, which was created in October 2019.

The badge, which can be earned by all Soldiers who are not infantrymen, Special Forces or medics, joins the Expert Infantry Badge and the Expert Field Medic Badge as a special skills badge.

As of July, according to Army Training and Doctrine Command, only 19% of the 5,000 Soldiers who have sought the Expert Soldier Badge have passed the course.

Blount is a 12-year veteran of the New York Army National Guard who serves full-time as a personnel expert in the 427th Brigade Support Command which is headquartered at its armory at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse.

Blount and the other three Soldiers had to successfully complete 30 Soldier tasks, qualify expert on their individual weapon, complete a physical fitness assessment, pass a day and night land navigation course and complete a timed 12-mile foot march with pack and weapon.

The training and testing session run by the 10th Mountain Division allocated two weeks for the skill badge evaluation.

The first week, from Sept. 20 to 26, gave Soldiers a chance to review the skills and then master them with hands on training. The second week, from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, was the testing phase.

The New York Guard Soldiers arrived at Fort Drum early so they could get a jump on the training and then they resolved to work together throughout the program, Blount said.

"Once we got there and we saw what it was all about and how challenging it was, it was pretty clear we were going to succeed or fail as a group," Blount said.

He's been involved in planning best warrior competitions, a test similar to the Expert Soldier Badge, Blount said, so he figured he could use his experience and help the younger Soldiers do better.

"We wanted to make sure we didn't leave anybody behind," Blount said. "We went at it as a team."

The toughest part of the two weeks for him, Blount said, was "maintaining a calm and collected outward appearance as a leader" for the other Soldiers and "managing the internal stress and anxiety as a participant."

"With the 30 plus tasks that you have to perform near flawlessly it can get extremely stressful and overwhelming," Blount explained.

The tasks are broken down into three lanes: weapons tasks, medical tasks and patrol tasks which involve things like map reading, transmitting a spot report and emplacing a Claymore mine.

In the weapons portions the soldiers had to work through tasks involving the Mk. 19 automatic grenade launcher, the M-2 .50 caliber machinegun and the M-249 squad automatic weapon without making a mistake.

They also had to learn to break down the new M-17 Sig Sauer pistol, instead of the M-9 Beretta pistol used by the New York Army National Guard, because that is the pistol issued to 10th Mountain Division troops.

The medical tasks, which included applying a field dressing, performing first aid in a gas contaminated environment, and treating an abdominal wound, were the toughest tasks for him, Blount said.

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