Pope teams prepare for Air Mobility Rodeo in test of skills
Temperatures and humidity were in the 90s with the sun beating down and reflecting off the pavement of the Pope Field flight line. Four aircraft propellers blasted hot kerosene-smelling fumes backward.
Master Sgt. Jessica Hinson and her aerial port squadron team stood poised, 50 feet back and 50 feet to the side, waiting for the ramp at the end of the C-130H cargo airplane to hit the ground.
Once the ramp touched down, the airmen, wearing gloves, goggles and ear protection, their T-shirts wet with sweat, hustled to load and unload the airplane in 12 minutes. They used hand signals to communicate over the noise of the running engines as they drove a forklift and Humvee back and forth and tied down equipment inside the aircraft.
The team was practicing for competition at Air Mobility Rodeo 2011 at McChord Field, Wash., from July 24-29.
Yes, the Air Force is alive and well at Pope, even though this year the former Air Force base became Fort Bragg's Army airfield. Most of the airmen competing in the Air Mobility Rodeo come from the active-duty 43rd Airlift Group. The competition airplane belongs to the Air Force Reserve's 440th Airlift Wing.
"We have over 1300 active duty (Airmen) always there to Pope Field," said Lieutenant Colonel Tex Johnson, the team leader. "There are many specialties that will be tested at the rodeo."
The Pope sent six teams of 34 airmen - the crews, maintenance of the squadron of air transport, medical evacuation, financial management and joint inspection release. The pope has no security forces on active duty, said Johnson.
Organizers expect over 150 teams and 3000 people in the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and allied nations.The objective is to develop and improve techniques and procedures that enhance air mobility operations such as delivery of goods and aircraft refueling. The last biennial competition was in July 2009 at McChord.
For years before the attacks of 9 / 11 terrorists, the competition was held annually in Pope and international competitors often they used skills learned in their jobs, but rarely in combat zones.
"We have a young team, but a lot of experience," said Johnson.
The Senior Airman Longeran Damian, 24, of New Ringgold, Pa., said his goggles fog and his hearing protection slides in the heat, but he has done the job when it's 135 degrees in Qatar.
Most of the team members are going to the rodeo for the first time, but they have flown into Iraq and Afghanistan many times. In overseas combat zones, the job is done with engines running.
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