Third Infantry Division’s Sergeant Jacob Bee: An Army Soldier Extraordinaire
SGT Jacob Bee is the very first recipient of the Third Infantry Division’s new Lieutenant Garlin “Murl” Conner Lethality & Leadership Award. Background on the award: World War II hero, the Third Infantry Division’s Lieutenant “Murl” Conner, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his outstanding Valor in Combat, in that War’s European Theater.
SGT Bee received this distinguished award, due to the following accomplishments: In 2018, he finished in First Place in the Eighth-Army Best Warrior Competition (South Korea stationing). He then went on to finish First in the Army’s Pacific- Command Best Warrior Competition (includes all 4-branch Pacific units, stationed from our West Coast waters to India/325,000 uniformed & civilian personnel).
Then, SGT Bee went on enter the All-Army Best Warrior Competition, where he placed Second. Second place among elite competitors from throughout the entire U.S. Army!! Going head-to-head against the Army’s best of the best.
But there’s more to that story. Too humble to mention it, I had to find out from Jake’s Mother, when she was visiting him in Savannah earlier this month, that during that All-Army competition, he had fractured his foot. Fractured it, in fact, on Day One of a Four-Day competition!! But instead of bowing out, Jake simply wrapped tape tightly around that foot each morning, and kept on competing for those three additional days. Now, if he finished second with a fractured foot, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that, without that significant competitive injury, he would’ve finished First. Jake is a bona-fide Army Warrior.
Recently, he was selected by Fort Stewart to appear with the Savannah Winds Band (Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University), in their annual July 4th Patriotic Concert, to read the lengthy narration accompanying the playing of “America The Beautiful.” He is the first enlisted military-member to read the narration in the over twenty years that piece has been performed, and he did a great job with it, on stage, in front of over 300 audience members, a great many of whom were veterans, with 6 going all the way back to service in World War II.
SGT. Bee, is from Naples, Florida. He enlisted in the Army in 2013. As a proud Infantry soldier, following basic and advanced training (Fort Benning, GA), Jake went on to become an Army Ranger, undergoing the rigors of three-site training, first at Fort Benning, then in the highlands of Dahlonega, GA, and finishing in the lowlands of Florida swamp country. As a Ranger, to date, he has already been on four combat deployments.
He has now successfully passed through the demanding qualification process to attend Special Forces “Q-Course” training, and will head up to Fort Bragg in November to begin that sequence. Upon completion, Sgt. Jacob Bee will become a U.S. Army Green Beret. His specialty on his future Special Forces Team will be Combat Medic.
Jake is currently stationed at Fort Stewart, GA. No question, he has a very bright Army future ahead of him. A great soldier, a stand-out competitor, and a truly great person, SGT. Jacob Bee represents the very best of America.