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Fort Bragg soldier Saral Shrestha wins Army award - People - NewsObserver.com
FORT BRAGG -- The U.S. Army recruited Saral Shrestha under a program that gave legal immigrants a shortcut to citizenship in exchange for the promise to serve as a good soldier for at least five years.
Shrestha proved he could be the very best soldier.
The native of Nepal was named Soldier of the Year after winning the Army's annual Best Warrior Competition, a four-day test of physical ability, combat skills, military knowledge and stress endurance.
"It's starting to sink in," Shrestha said on his return to Fort Bragg after the competition in Fort Lee, Va., and several days in Washington, where he met military VIPs. "I'm starting to realize I really did win this."
The Best Warrior contest is the Super Bowl of Army skills tests, the culmination of a year or more of training, drilling and advancing through six or seven levels of competition starting at the company or battalion level. Only 24 competitors go to Fort Lee: 12 non-commissioned officers and 12 enlisted soldiers.
The U.S. Army recruited Saral Shrestha under a program that gave legal immigrants a shortcut to citizenship in exchange for the promise to serve as a good soldier for at least five years.
Shrestha proved he could be the very best soldier.
The native of Nepal was named Soldier of the Year after winning the Army's annual Best Warrior Competition, a four-day test of physical ability, combat skills, military knowledge and stress endurance.
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"It's starting to sink in," Shrestha said on his return to Fort Bragg after the competition in Fort Lee, Va., and several days in Washington, where he met military VIPs. "I'm starting to realize I really did win this."
The Best Warrior contest is the Super Bowl of Army skills tests, the culmination of a year or more of training, drilling and advancing through six or seven levels of competition starting at the company or battalion level. Only 24 competitors go to Fort Lee: 12 non-commissioned officers and 12 enlisted soldiers.
Shrestha, a power-generator technician in support of the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, competed in the soldier category against representatives of 11 other major Army commands from around the country, though he and several others had been promoted to sergeant before they arrived at Fort Lee.
Shrestha, now 24, entered the Army three years ago.
He had wanted to serve in the military or police in Nepal, a mountainous country between India and China, since he was a child, he said, but his mother wanted him to come to the United States to further his education.
"I respected her wishes," he said, and came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2006 to study computer science at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Neb. In 2009, with a couple dozen credit hours left to go, he joined the military through its then-new MAVNI program, Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest. The Defense Department uses MAVNI to recruit legal immigrants to fill personnel shortages in certain medical and language skills.
Shrestha, who learned five languages growing up in Nepal, passed the military's proficiency test in Urdu, which is spoken in Pakistan and India. He was accepted and sent for basic training at Fort Benning, Ga.
"I graduated basic training and was granted my citizenship on the same day," he said. "That is a really special day for me."
Shrestha finished his college studies while he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.
"It was difficult," he said, because he was assigned to a remote base with limited Internet access. A sympathetic commander allowed Shrestha to use his computer an hour each day, as long as Shrestha was able to fulfill his other responsibilities.
Shrestha got interested in the Best Warrior competition after returning from Afghanistan to Fort Bragg last fall.
"I asked my squad leader: 'Give me the chance to compete for soldier of the month, soldier of the quarter,'"‰" Shrestha said. "I just asked for a chance, and I kept performing better, and I kept winning."
Always a runner, he had to step up his physical training. He also began studying the Constitution and military history and doctrine, and he memorized Army regulations and standards. He made flash cards that his wife, Elisha, used to test him constantly. All along, he said, his colleagues cheered him on and helped him find the time to study.
"This is extremely difficult to do," said Sgt. Jason Rogers, the senior quartermaster in Group Service Support Company, Group Support Battalion, Shrestha's unit. "He's a group leader, so he has regular tasks he has to do, and he has to deal with any issues with his soldiers in the motor pool he's assigned to. Then he has a ton of stuff to study, and he has to get ready physically.
