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Team Hickam represents at Rodeo 2011

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carolyn Herrick
  • Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  Team Hickam arrived at the 2011 Air Mobility Rodeo July 23, ready to compete for not only a win but also a great experience learning from other teams represented.

The Rodeo, which began July 24 and will finish July 29, is a biennial airlift competition hosted by Air Mobility Command. Although this is the first Rodeo to occur since Ft. Lewis and McChord Air Force Base joined to become Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Feb. 1, 2010, the Rodeo's history dates back to the 1956 Reserve Troop Carrier Rodeo at Bakalar Air Force Base, Ind., hosted by the Continental Air Command.

International competitors this year are competing from Belgium, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Spain, and Sweden. Five units from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, are also in attendance, according to Maj. Anthony Gurrieri, the 15th Wing Rodeo chief.

"We've got the 15th Wing C-17s and KC-135, a 15th and 154th Wing joint maintenance team, 647th Air Base Group security forces, the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing aerial port team, and 624th RSG aerial porters," Gurrieri said.

Although the Rodeo officially started July 24, the week's grading and scoring began for Team Hickam when the C-17 and KC-135 touched down on the runway here.

"We shacked our arrival time and received 200 of 200 points available," said Capt. Jasmine McCann, a 96th Air Refueling Squadron KC-135 pilot from JBPHH.

Although the Hickam tankers' first official event, a nighttime air refueling flight July 26, was very challenging, McCann said the team is doing well overall, thanks to "team work, knowledge of tech(nical) orders and the Rodeo (operational order), and good, old-fashioned piloting."

As a joint, active duty/Hawaii Air National Guard unit, their goal for Rodeo is to be the first HIANG tail to be in the top three, McCann said, although, "to win would be the best."
So far, they are representing Hickam well, Gurrieri said.

"Our teams are competitive at this point based on the scores for the events they have completed. There's a lot of competition left, so there's a lot to go on still, but we're on track and we're doing well," he said.

This kind of excellence isn't built overnight, however. Team Hickam has been preparing for the Rodeo starting three months ago when their training window opened up, Gurrieri said.

"Our teams worked extremely hard to get ready," he said. "They've taken that training and executed the mission as prescribed in the (operational orders) and worked total force integration on the maintenance side, coming together with five teams from five different wings to work as one, put Hickam at the forefront, and do our best."

Distinguished visitors from Hawaii, including members of Friends of Hickam and the Pacific Air Forces Civilian Advisory Council, also came to represent the local community at the Rodeo, and see what Team Hickam is doing on a daily basis, Gurrieri added.

"Our goal overall is to win trophies; but honestly, more than that, it's going out and doing our best every time," he said. "Our goal is to represent Hickam well, and if we win that's great; but if not, I'll still be proud of what our guys have done."