Kadena recognizes Turkey Shoot top performers

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Corey M. Pettis
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Airmen from Kadena Air Base attended the awards ceremony Oct. 9 for the Turkey Shoot competition that took place from July until September.

In order to determine Kadena's top performers, the competition consisted of aircraft generation, live flight, simulator competitions and knowledge tests.

Thirteen units competed in the quarterly event, including the 18th Operations Support Squadron, 390th Intelligence Squadron, 44th and 67th Fighter Squadrons and associate aircraft maintenance units, 961st Airborne Air Control Squadron, 623rd Air Control Flight, 31st and 33rd Rescue Squadrons, 18th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and 909th Air Refueling Squadron.

The winners for each category are:

For the Aeromedical Evacuation Competition:
Top performer - Staff Sgt. Kasey Kilby
Best AE Team - Capt. Jessica Looft, Capt. Daneed Kosa, Staff Sgt. Kasey Kilby, Staff Sgt. Aldwin Gacote, Staff Sgt. Wilson Tsao, Staff Sgt. Kyle Lipscomb and Staff Sgt. Joel Pallon

For the Maintenance Competition:
Top Weapons Load Crew - 44th AMU, Staff Sgt. Michael Goncalves and Senior Airmen David Richmond and Nicholas McCants
Top Eagle - Senior Airman Jonathan Weishuhn and Airman 1st Class William Garcia
Top Production Section - 44th AMU, Master Sgt. Jason Dluzeski and Tech. Sgt. Russell Hoffman
Top Specialist Section - 44th AMU, Staff Sgts. Tyler Phillips, Carlos Guzman and Alexander Lolopulous
Top Support Section - 44th AMU, Tech Sgt. Timothy Davidson and Senior Airman Dillon Myers
Overall Winner - 44th AMU

  For the OSS Competition:
Top Academic Performer - Staff Sgt. Brandon Huseman, 18th OSS
Top Enlisted Airman - Airman 1st Class Wesley Strader, 18th OSS
Top Enlisted NCO - Staff Sgt. Stephanie Scheerer, 18th OSS
Top Officer Performer - 1st Lt. Kyle Van Hecke, 33rd RQS
Top Intelligence Team - Staff Sgt. Brandon Huseman and Airman 1st Class Wesley Strader, 18th OSS

For the 390th IS Competition:
Top Rivet Joint Crew - Capt. Albert Burnett, Tech Sgts. Rafael Pacheco, Randy Millonida and George Kiszlo, and Staff Sgts. Daniel Schwartz, Samantha McAlevy and Jeremy Cleek

For the 909th ARS Competition:
Pilot Academic Award - Capt. Patrick Shanks
Co-Pilot Academic Award - Capt. Kyle McCullough
Boom Operator Academic Award - Staff Sgt. Joshua Butts
Top Aircrew Award - Capt. Dane Arnholt, 1st Lt. Justin Leachman and Staff Sgt. Michael Voorhees

For the 31st RQS Competition: 
Top Technical Rescue Team - Staff Sgts. Jason Fischman and Benjamin Slipek

For the 33rd RQS Competition:
Top HH-60 Crew - Capts. Matthew Pfarr and Mary Marx, Master Sgt. Gregory Gibbs and Staff Sgt. Jesus Garcia

For the Command and Control Competition:
Top DMO Controller - 1st Lt. Christopher Dunn
Top DMO Technitions - Senior Airman Ruben Lopez and Airman 1st Class Melissa McLellan
Top C2 Academic - Capt. Jason Ward
Top Scope DCA - Tech. Sgt. Brad Harvey
Top Scope OCA - 1st Lt. Andre Hebert
Top C2 Award - 961st AACS

For the Fighter Squadron Competition:
Top Academic Squadron - 67th Fighter Squadron
Top BFM Wingman - 1st Lt. Matthew Selby
Top BFM 2 Ship Flight Lead - Capt. Steven Hendricks
Top BFM 4 Ship Lead - Capt. David Kuhn
Top BFM Instructor Pilot - Lt. Col. Gregory Pickette
Top XVA DMO SIM - Capt. John Banker
Top F-15 OCA Flight - 67th FS, Capt. Thomas Easter, Capt. David Kuhn, Capt. Gregory Schroeder, Capt. Jason Shank, Capt. Robert Hendrick and Capt. Nathan Liptak
Top DCA Flight - Maj. Jay Talbert, Capt. Aaron Osborne, Capt. Jason Shank, Capt. Aaron Brockman
The 2015 Top Fighter Squadron - 67th FS

Congrats to all of the winners during the Turkey Shoot!