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Dyess' best compete in GSC

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Charles V. Rivezzo
  • 7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Airmen from the 7th Maintenance Group competed in the 3rd annual Global Strike Challenge Sept. 19 expecting to reclaim their place atop the maintenance community. Official score-posting will be at Barksdale AFB, La., Nov. 4-8.

Two years ago, Dyess walked away with the Ellis Giant Sword Trophy for best bomber maintenance, one of the most coveted trophies in the maintenance realm.

"The Ellis Giant Sword Trophy knows Dyess very well," said Col. Vincent Lostetter, 7th Bomb Wing vice commander, prior to the start of the competition. "Colonel VanHerck already has a spot picked out in the headquarters building where we can return it to its rightful place, and we are going to do that with the great teams we have out here today."

For the last few months, handpicked 7th MXG Airmen have been training to ensure they take advantage of every opportunity to showcase their capabilities as the Air Force's premier maintenance unit.

"The Global Strike Challenge and competitions like it provide our maintainers an opportunity to compete with their peers at other bases, and other major commands," said Maj. John Briner, 7th Munitions Squadron commander. "Here at Dyess, our Airmen aren't just representing their squadrons and wing, but Air Combat Command as well, and they're doing it in an outstanding manner. They know the winner of this competition will be hailed as the best, so there was a great motivation to train, study and practice in order to reach that goal and be recognized."

The competition kicked-off with a team parade around the base followed by a dress-and-appearance inspection, general-knowledge testing, aircraft pre-flight evaluation, ammunition bomb building and conventional weapons loading.

There were four graded events in the ammo competition.

During the first event, the team had a maximum of 90 minutes to assemble 18 Joint Direct Attack Munitions on a munitions assembly conveyor.

The second event tasked the teams to build 42 500-pound unguided training bombs in under 60 minutes.

The third event was a "breakout" of 126 500-pound bombs; they were removed from storage configuration and loaded onto 40-foot trailers.

The final event was a vehicle "rodeo" where operators had to back a loaded 40-foot trailer into a 9-foot-wide area and move 12 2,000-pound bombs from one small space into another.

Briner added that the GSC is more than just trophies and bragging rights, but a competition that better prepares Airmen for the job they do each and every day.

"The competition is only one part of the equation," he said. "While it's great to win an award and receive the recognition, it's the impact to our mission at Dyess that really matters. All of the training, practicing and long hours of studying develop these young maintainers into experts, experts who now bring their enhanced skills and knowledge back to their work centers and make all of us better."

After seeing his Airmen in action, Briner admitted how impressed and proud he was of the outstanding performance they put on for GSC inspectors.

"Our involvement in the Global Strike Challenge gives us an opportunity to demonstrate publicly our pride in what our Airmen do, day in and day out," Briner said. "Our team showed the rest of the base and the community just how good these folks are at their jobs. I fully expect we'll be receiving the Ellis Giant Sword Trophy for Best Bomber Maintenance as proof when we attend the score posting in November."


7th Maintenance Group Team

Crew Chiefs

Staff Sgt. Nicholas Grow
Staff Sgt. Danel Mendoza
Senior Airman Oscar Masga

Weapons Load Crew

Staff Sgt. James Travis
Staff Sgt. Justin Johnson
Airman 1st Class Dane Williamson
Senior Airman Maurice Brown

Ammo Technicians

Tech. Sgt. Jesus Marrujo
Staff Sgt. Cody Dietz
Staff Sgt. Richard Clare
Senior Airman Jason Lemmond
Senior Airman Stephen Miskowic
Senior Airman Anthony Bolante
Airman 1st Class Joses Carpenter
Airman 1st Class Thomas Sams
Airman 1st Class Cody Williams
Airman 1st Class Amy Hersey
Airman 1st Class Matthew Carlson