US army's 'Soldier of the Year' is a Filipino

A Filipino emerged as the “Soldier of the Year" after he slugged it out in a grueling five-day competition to prove who’s the toughest, smartest and most skilled in the US Army.

Spc. Heyz T. Seeker, of the 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia, was hailed as this year’s top soldier in the Army’s Best Warrior Competition.

Seeker participated in the 13 two-man team competition in Fort Lee, Virginia and endured a series of rigorous activities that tested the skills, qualities and abilities of the soldiers in the ranks of private through sergeant first class who have attained best warrior status at 13 major Army commands or regions over the past year . The 35-year-old soldier owes much of his motivation to his victory to his five-year-old daughter.

"My daughter was born in 2002, and I felt I had to protect her and I joined the fight against terrorism," Seeker said in an interview that appeared in Richmond Times-Dispatch.

According to the report, Seeker had been in the US Army for a decade and has been deployed in war-torn Middle East countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. After rejoining the Army in 2004, his wife gave birth to a son.

For now, Seeker, who’s the only one in his family to become an Army Ranger, is determined to be elevated as the first Filipino sergeant major, the Army's top enlisted rank, according to the US army's website.

The report did not say where in the Philippines Seeker came from.All the participants went through a battery of tests which includes: physical fitness tests, a two-mile run, a written examination on general military topics, a graded essay on an assigned topic, qualification on M4 rifles, qualification on day and night orientation courses and evaluation on a number of critical tasks and drills, plus a mystery event. - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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