2007 Soldier of the Year
notable
Sgt. 1st Class Scott Griffith
Sgt. 1st Class Scott Griffith, a human resources specialist serving as the operations sergeant for the 84th Training Command's leadership development directorate, leads by /"head, heart and hands,/" said teammate Master Sgt. Rebecca Burr, citing his work as a soldier and as a fund-raiser for various charities. A reservist and businessman - he owns a dry cleaning business - he helped raise $2,500 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation last year. A survivor of two bouts with cancer and a father of three sons, he is a warrant officer candidate. Griffith, 40, was placed on the dean's list while attending Grantham University. He has an associate's degree in computer information systems and he's working on a bachelor's degree in business.
2007 Soldier of the Year
notable
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ryan
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ryan "instilled a spirit of selfless service to all of the classes he taught," said 1st Sgt. Don Hudgell, in his nomination letter for Ryan, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear operations specialist serving as an NCO Academy instructor. "He inspired his students to volunteer over 500 hours of support to local community organizations and functions such as Head Start, the Red Cross" and others. Ryan also mentored more than 30 students who were to brief trainees in One Station Unit Training on lessons learned out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hudgell said. For such efforts, Ryan was honored in 2006 as the NCO Academy instructor of the year.
2007 Soldier of the Year
honorable
Sgt. 1st Class Jarrod Gozy
While serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, last year with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Sgt. 1st Class Jarrod Gozy, 33, helped design force protection procedures and was the noncommissioned officer in charge of security at his base's main gate. Locals with appointments at the hospital came through that gate and Gozy helped children feel at ease. He gave them candy, toys and took photographs of them with their families - the printouts he provided often were the first photographs the families possessed.
In addition, he established a foundation that helped sponsor 22 schools and provided supplies for more than 20,000 students and teachers. The foundation also provided 150 beds for the children's ward of the local hospital.
Gozy, a truck driver by training, also looked after his own troops, registering with the Web site Anysoldier.com to arrange for donations from military supporters and passing along the goodies and gifts that arrived. In Germany, where he has been for a year, he sponsored local military children to attend a middle school service project in Poland and served as an adult leader for that effort.
2007 Soldier of the Year
honorable
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark Kelsey
As a reservist, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark Kelsey, 58, volunteered to mobilize for duty as a casualty notification and assistance officer.
"Most soldiers fear the time they will be asked to perform" such a role, Capt. Greg Smith wrote in his nomination letter for Kelsey, noting that "Kelsey understood fully that he would be meeting regularly with families experiencing the tough loss of a loved one, and grieving mightily, but he also knew he could help them cope with trying times and often horrible circumstances."
"He may not be holding a rifle, but in many ways the duty he performs is far more difficult and harder to accomplish," Smith said of a job that is "thankless and invisible."
Like other casualty assistance officers, Kelsey works with families of the fallen to ensure they are connected with support services and benefits programs. Moreover, he worked with local aid agencies, police chaplain systems and charitable organizations to provide additional assistance.
2007 Soldier of the Year
winner
Captain Scott Smiley
His wife, Tiffany, gave birth to their first baby, a son named Grady, on May 12.
FORT MONROE, Va. - Capt. Scott Smiley says store clerks don't always realize he's blind until he has handed them a credit card and doesn't extend his hand when they try to give it back.
His blindness hasn't kept him from surfing in Hawaii, skiing in Colorado, skydiving in Texas, running on post or working out at the gym.
Nor has it stopped him from pushing ahead with his Army career, one that started with his 2003 graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and could well have ended April 6, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq, when he faced down a car bomber from the hatch of his Stryker combat vehicle.
He had been hit by improvised explosive devices and seen the devastation of car bombs, "but I'd never been faced with yelling at a guy who blows himself up," said Smiley, 27.
When the car bomber detonated his payload just 30 yards in front of the Stryker, Smiley's eyes were destroyed, his left frontal lobe lacerated and the right side of his body paralyzed. The total loss of his eyesight appears to be the only lasting physical effect.
That moment - and his decision not to shoot the driver - would change his life forever.
"That's the hard thing about the war we're fighting over there," said Smiley, who was a platoon leader with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division.
"We're fighting civilians - all they have to do is drop their weapons and they're a civilian again."
The driver's behavior - and the visibly weighed-down vehicle he was driving - raise Smiley's suspicions. He yelled and fired two warning shots at the ground, but the driver behaved passively and even put his hands up as if surrendering.
"You can't just shoot someone because you think he's a bomber," said smiley. "He could have had a bunch of metal in the back of his car; he might have been from out of town and lost."
But he wasn't lost - and now Smiley knows that by taking the brunt of the car bomb's explosion, he saved the lives of other soldiers who might have been targeted down the road.
"I would have had a .50-cal blow his head off if I had known," Smiley said, crediting his shattered Oakley M Frame ballistic glasses with saving his life.
As for his continued good fortune, Smiley credits a higher source.
"I definitely believe God has been with me and blessed me beyond words. It's not a normal thing for a totally blind soldier to serve and to keep giving back to the Army," Smiley said.
Lt. Gen. Robert VanAntwerp, who nominated Smiley for Army Times Soldier of the Year, said of the captain, "There's no 'say no' in him. He wants to do it all. He's not daunted by the challenge. He loves soldiering," he said.
VanAntwerp paved the way for Smiley to spend a year with the Individual Training Assessment Team at U.S. Army Accessions Command, Fort Monroe, Va. There, he used a special computer and audio equipment he acquired through the Tricare system to do his work.
During his time at Accessions Command, he traveled around the Army to talk to both healthy and wounded soldiers about honor, duty service to country, and the value of staying in the Army to contribute hard-earned expertise. He, his wife Tiffany and their new baby, Grady, have since moved to North Carolina, where Smiley will pursue a master's degree in business administration from Duke University.
"He's an example for all soldiers. He has stepped up to make sure others don't fall behind," said Col. Mary Carstensen, director of the Army Wounded Warrior Program. Carstensen said Smiley is one of only 39 severely wounded soldiers who continue to serve on active duty.
"He challenges soldiers to stretch themselves and establish goals," she said.
His friends and family say Smiley's faith in God and lifelong determination have kept him steady.
Some call him a "stud" whose blindness "hasn't changed him in any way but to make him better."
"He's always been a strong kid, a man of character. He's my younger brother, but a brother I look up to in many ways," said Capt. Neal Smiley, a Special Forces soldier serving overseas.
After Duke University, the family will move to West Point, where Smiley will teach management and the philosophy of military leadership.
