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What's a Rodeo have to do with air mobility?

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Craig Cady
  • 305th Air Mobility Wing Rodeo team chief
MCGUIRE AFB, N.J. --  If you are like most folks, you have either never heard of Rodeo or wondered what a Rodeo has to do with air mobility. More to the point, you probably are thinking "What do I care? That doesn't have anything to do with me." If so, you'd be wrong. Rodeo has everything to do with you. 

If you work at McGuire AFB as a civilian, enlisted or officer then Rodeo is all about what you do every day directly enabling or executing air mobility for our nation. 

Today's Air Mobility Rodeo competitions date from the early 1960's when leaders of the Military Air Transport Service envisioned a competition that would encourage excellence, enable cross-flow of techniques and build camaraderie. The first competition included seven aircraft and 14 crews. That competition was opened to the international community in 1979. As the years went by, what began as predominately an airdrop competition evolved to include the full spectrum of air mobility capability -- airlift, airdrop, low level navigation, air refueling, maintenance, aerial port and security forces. 

This year's competition takes place at McChord AFB, Wash., July 21-28 and includes 55 teams from around the globe as well as 14 international observers. 

Your Rodeo team includes the first blended active-Reserve C-17 operations/maintenance entry plus 305th KC-10 ops/mx, aerial port and security forces. Likewise, the 514th Air Mobility Wing is fielding a KC-10 ops/mx package and the Contingency Response Wing is bringing aerial port and security forces participants.
Each of these team members represents you and the hard work you do to make air mobility a reality every day of the week. Whether you work at the dining facility, finance, civil engineering, vehicle maintenance, on the flight-line, or in a flying squadron, your Rodeo team aims to show the world where first class air mobility takes place -- the home of our nation's finest air mobility team, Team McGuire!