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Travis CRW Airmen capture RODEO trophy

  • Published
  • By Capt. Paradon Silpasornprasit
  • 615th Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Travis AFB welcomed home a championship team as members of the 615th Contingency Response Wing returned victorious from the 2009 Air Mobility Command RODEO competition.

The annual event, held at McChord AFB, Wash., proved an opportunity for the 615th CRW to demonstrate what they always strive to do best -- respond and move their capabilities quickly under pressure to complete the mission at hand. The 615th CRW's four-person Engine Running Off-load/On-load Team brought back the award for Best Contingency Operations ERO Team, despite fierce competition from their colleagues out of Ramstein AB, Germany, and McGuire AFB, N.J.

Although the AMC RODEO is an annual event, the challenges are dynamic, simulating real-world contingencies while helping Airmen hone their specialized skill set. 

"The goals are to share knowledge, enhance esprit de corps and encourage cross flow of communication," Lt. Col. Craig Theisen, 570th Global Mobility Readiness Squadron commander explained. "I feel great that our team went out and did just that." 

Staff Sgt. John Schaefer, 615th CRW/ERO team member and loadmaster, said the team's real-world deployment experiences were huge assets in competition. 

"We took what we do in the real world and brought it to the competition," he said. "We had a plan, we had a template, and we applied it."

With the AMC RODEO competition coming on the heels of HYDRA '09, the 615th demonstrated its ability to quickly assemble and deploy its capabilities to accomplish its goal with minimal downtime. "The team itself had very little excess time for preparation, but they all brought their A-game," Colonel Theisen said.

The 615th Contingency Response Wing's mission is to employ rapidly deployable cross-functional teams to quickly open forward airbases in an expeditionary environment to meet combatant commanders' needs on the ground.

Thirty-four members of the 615th participated in the RODEO as competitors, judges or support personnel with most being new to this competition. They were tested in diverse specialties ranging from security forces, logistics and command and control elements.

More than 100 teams from throughout the U.S. Air Force and 13 foreign nations competed in Air Mobility RODEO 2009.