West Virginia and District of Columbia National Guard members board a C17 Globemaster III at the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg, West Virginia on Jan. 30, 2025. These Soldiers and Airmen are preparing to travel over 7,000 miles to either compete or support the West Virginia Army National Guard’s annual Best Warrior Competition at the National Services Academy in Umm Salal Muhammed, Qatar. This year’s competition is being hosted at the Qatar Armed Forces’ National Service Academy and is the first to be hosted jointly with a partner nation outside the continental United States, and the first time that partner nation’s military members have competed alongside U.S. service members. The competition features a multitude of core competencies ranging from the Army Combat Fitness Test and weapons lanes to a foot march and detailed individual warrior tasks and battle drills. The West Virginia National Guard and Qatar Armed Forces partnered in 2018 through the State Partnership Program, the National Guard’s flagship international affairs and security cooperation initiative. Years of combined training and development of enduring relationships between the militaries has led to this event, meant to foster more capable and interoperable partners, and pursue shared objectives.