Team Hickam Air Mobility Rodeo Team makes their debut, readies for action

Published June 16, 2009
By Col. Andrew M. Hockman
15th Operations Group commander

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii -- Team Hickam rolled out its 2009 Air Mobility Rodeo Team in style last Friday with a rousing introduction during the Monthly Recognition Ceremony.

Twenty-three total force team members from Hickam's Active Duty and Air National Guard will begin the challenging preparation for the international competition held biennially to identify the "Best of the Best" in Air Mobility. This year's events will run from July 18-24 at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., and will draw more than 48 teams from more than 26 countries.

With a trophy in hand from 2007, this year's team is looking to bring home even more hardware with events including flying competitions in airdrop, air refueling, short field landings, backing/combat offload and engine running offload.

In addition, a dozen maintainers will literally hit the ground running, with everything they do graded during the five days of competition, from pre-flight to post-flight, to refueling and day to day inspections, where even a small chip in the paint could cost points. Before they even fly their first sortie, the entire team has to compete in a "Fit to Fight" event within two hours of arrival.

During the flying and maintenance events, security forces team members will be executing several combat weapons and tactics courses designed to gauge their performance under stress in combat, and even under chem/bio threat conditions.
The rodeo is designed to demonstrate air mobility mission capabilities, seek out new tactics, techniques, and procedures that improve mission results, increase esprit de corps both among competing teams and internationally, and build standardization and safety -- only the "best of the best" need apply.

2009 Air Mobility
Rodeo Team

Team Commander
Maj. James Chapa

Flight Crew
Capt. Jeff McCarty
Maj. Anthony Davis
Capt. Jon Ma
Sr. Airman Dan Baker

Maintenance
1 Lt. Carly Omizo
MSgt. Patrick Pettis
MSgt. Ronald Timbreza
TSgt. Willard Jim
TSgt. Jacob Ness
TSgt. Ross Yoneda
SSgt. Christopher Macadangdang
SSgt. Raul Alafa
SSgt. Kelley Tolbert
SSgt. Aaron Trammell
SSgt. Jonathon Rupp
SSgt. Troy Matsumiya

Joint Airdrop Inspection
TSgt. Ike Murray
SSgt. Scott Stueven

Security Forces
TSgt. James Howard
TSgt. Pablo Martinez
SSgt. Devone Cherry
Airman 1st Class Eric Fowler