An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Article Display

McGuire's Rodeo 2007 team prepares for competition

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tom Kootsikas
  • 6th Airlift Squadron
MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. --  This week's update on Team McGuire's participation in Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 highlights the C-17A employment competition. This portion of the event will be a true Team McGuire effort in that it will not be scored solely on the aircrew's flying skills, but on the entire base's ability to employ the C-17A Globemaster III.

Not only will multiple base units join together, but the Airmen making up the aircrew and maintenance teams will come from both the 305th and 514th Air Mobility Wings. To achieve the goals of finishing as the Best Air Mobility Wing, Best C-17 Team and Best C-17 Aircrew, it will take the combined efforts of members from the 6th and 732nd Airlift Squadrons, 305th Aerial Port Squadron, 305th and 514th Maintenance Squadrons and the 305th Security Forces Squadron.

McGuire's Rodeo 2007 aircrew will set the precedent as the first crew fielded from both active-duty and reserve squadrons. While this portion of Rodeo focuses on aircrew employment skills, it will be an absolute test for the entire base. The Airmen representing McGuire from the 6 AS and 732 AS include Capt. Mike Howard, Capt. Dan Fehl, Capt. Tom Kootsikas and Senior Airman Brian Kienholz. This select crew brings more than 22 years and 10,000 hours of combined operational C-17 experience to the competition and each has spent between two to four years at McGuire.

The Rodeo challenge begins upon arrival at McChord AFB, Wash., where the crew will be graded on a touchdown within one minute of a pre-assigned arrival time. In the following days, there will be three flights, during which the team will showcase the skills they've learned throughout years of operational missions and home station training sorties. Among the events tasked are day and night air refueling, short field assault landings, tactical low levels with a focus on time on target, tactical usage of night vision devices and crew coordination exercises such as precision aircraft backing and combat offloads. These events highlight the unique characteristics of the C-17A Globemaster III.

With each new Rodeo competition, the preparation required becomes more challenging by the ever-changing C-17 community. As the aircraft continue to roll off the assembly line and the number of C-17 wings increase, the competition becomes more rigorous.

This one-week challenge will not simply test the efforts of the C-17, but rather the efforts of numerous base agencies, Air Force and Air Reserve tanker wings. In order to best prepare for the competition, the aircrew has been training in concert with McGuire's Rodeo aerial port and maintenance teams since mid-May. Furthermore, the team has been working with KC-135 units from Rickenbacker AFB, Ohio, MacDill AFB, Fla., and the KC-10's and KC-135's at McGuire.

Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 is not graded on an individual's, an aircrew's or even a single airframe's accomplishments. It's about one wing's ability to bring it all to the table and showcase what thousands of Airmen can do when they are focused on one goal -- mission accomplishment. With that support, McGuire's C-17 team is ready to meet not only the Rodeo challenge, but any it is called upon to meet in the future.