733rd Air Mobility Squadron prepares for the Air Mobility Rodeo

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kasey Zickmund
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Editors Note: This is the third in a series of articles on Team Kadena's preparation for the Air Mobility Rodeo.

With the engines running, a team of 733rd Air Mobility Squadron Airmen quickly and safely load and unload a cargo aircraft without saying a word. This is just one of the tasks these Airmen have to accomplish during this year's Air Mobility Rodeo.

The 733rd AMS is competing in the Air Transportation (formally known as Aerial Port) part of the rodeo held at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., July 22-28. They will compete against teams from all the U.S. military branches and around the world.

The 909th Air Refueling Squadron, 909th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, 18th Security Forces Squadron, and the 18th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron will also be representing the 18th Wing at the rodeo.

"This is my first time going to rodeo," said Airman 1st Class Kurtis Strasser, team member. "I'm excited and I can't wait to see what the competition has to bring."

Participants will compete in five different events, they are: joint inspection, engine running on/offloading (ERO), combat endurance run, in-transit visibility, and a 10K forklift driving course.

Training for this event started March 12, the team has been working out five times a week and running more than three miles a day to get ready for this month's event.

"We started out doing step aerobics to get warmed up then in April we hit it hard," said Master Sgt. Derek McLeland, team coach.

Each week the team has focused their training on one event. This week was the ERO where a four-person team is judged on how safely and quickly they can load and unload vehicles and pallets while the aircraft's engines are running.

"This event is the most exciting," said Sergeant McLeland. "Everyone has to be on point because you can't hear anything due to the engine noise."

Due to limited resources, the team was unable to practice with an actual aircraft. The team pressed on by tuning their skills on fastening down cargo. Using pallets, chains, and fasteners the team worked on how to fasten a Humvee with a trailer.

The team will travel to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, July 9, to do more ERO training for the competition.

The one event that team is not looking forward to is the combat endurance run.

"The endurance course is going to be the toughest," said Staff Sgt. Robert Satterwhite, team member, "because you really don't know what it is going to be like until you get there."

The combat endurance run is a five-person team event and has several different challenges: push-ups, sit-ups, gear preparation (donning on their web belts, canteens, and gas mask), memory jogger, vehicle push, litter carry, cargo build up, and a gas mask run.

In the joint inspection event a two-person team assesses general and dangerous cargo and associated documents provided by the customer for one airdrop cargo load. Teams are evaluated on how well they find and annotate any discrepancies prior to shipment.

The in-transit visibility event uses the Global Air Transportation Execution System. A three-person team inputs data to create cargo and passenger listings. Teams are evaluated on the accuracy of the lists and whether or not the data was transmitted to the Global Transportation Network before the aircraft's scheduled take-off time.

In the 10K forklift driving course a two-person team negotiates a 10K forklift through a series of cones, driving forward to the end-point; returning in reverse to the starting point. Teams are evaluated on how quickly and safely they can maneuver throughout the course.

Sergeant McLeland has high hopes for his team.

"There is no way that we will come back empty handed," said Sergeant McLeland. "These guys have worked really hard and have come a long way to show everyone else what we got."