Top 10 questions answered about your Rodeo 2007 team Published June 22, 2007 By Lt. Col. Craig Cady 305th Air Mobility Wing Rodeo team chief MCGUIRE AFB, N.J. -- 1. How were the team members picked for your Rodeo team? The team is a 50/50-blend of active-duty and Reserve maintainers. Squadron leadership took a look at the best technicians who were currently at home station and not scheduled to deploy during the competition. We scrubbed the lists and chose the present team. 2. How many events will the team compete in? The team will be judged on four events, for three awards: Best C-17 Maintenance Team, Best C-17 Preflight Team and Best C-17 Postflight team. 3. What are the events? - Pre Flight Inspection - Basic Post Flight Inspection - Aircraft Refueling Ops - Daily Observations (launch and recovery ops, safety, etc.) 4. Are there certain events the team is really looking forward to compete in over the others? The team is focused on the whole competition. The Rodeo requires a disciplined and professional approach, not just to maintenance but appearance, bearing, etc. The skills gained from practicing can be applied to each event in the competition. The team wants to prove to the rest of the competition what we already know -- that McGuire has the best C-17 maintenance in the world. 5. When was the last Rodeo your squadron competed in; how did they do? The 305th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron competed in the 2005 Rodeo and took home the Postflight Trophy. We are looking at upping the stakes and taking home the Best C-17 Maintenance Trophy. 6. What are the expectations for this team? Plain and simple, this team wants to win. Everyone has been preparing extremely hard and we want to exchange all that effort for a trophy. 7. How has the team prepared for the competition? (What type of conditioning, freshen up on job skills, etc.) The team participates with physical conditioning three times a week following a basic training exercise regimen courtesy of team member (former military training instructor) Staff Sgt. Chrissie Valenza. Our in-depth maintenance training has forced personnel to refocus on the small details. We want to find the write-ups before the umpires do. In essence, it's "back to the basics" maintenance. Rodeo practice is all about follow ups. When you have another set of eyes looking at your finished product they might see something you didn't. After an inspection, we will have Quality Assurance or previous Rodeo competitors look over the aircraft. Afterwards, they will show us what we did good and what we could do better. The end result is a more thorough inspection and a more educated maintainer. The team will deploy for a week and a half to Nellis AFB, Nev., to support the C-17 Weapons Instructor Course. This will allow the team to get away from home station, get uninterrupted practice and allow them to further mesh as a team. 8. Have any team members competed in a Rodeo before or is this the first? Master Sgt. Paul Sigloch, 514th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, and Tech. Sgt. Douglas Varden, 305 AMXS, have both been prior Rodeo competitors. Addition-ally, we have tapped the previous Rodeo teams for any information they can provide on how to max out our performance. 9. How do competitions like the Rodeo help your squadron in its mission? Rodeo is the squadron's competition. All personnel may not be competing, but those that do are representatives of the McGuire Maintenance Group. Everyone wants to see them succeed because it is the units' name on the trophies, not the individuals. 10. Are there any challenges to running a blended team? There have been no real challenges with managing this team. Most everyone on the team knew each other prior to being selected and they have been more than willing to show up early, stay late, work a weekend and go the extra mile so that we come back from McChord with a trophy.