Mobility Squadrons 'Round Up' top performers

by Staff Sgt. Christopher Ruano
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

9/19/2014 - SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany  -- The 726th Air Mobility Squadron, an Air Mobility Command tenant unit, hosted the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing Round Up on Spangdahlem Air Base, pitting several AMC squadrons in U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa against one another in one location Sept. 15-16, 2014.

"The round up is an event that we usually do every two years, where we come together as maintenance and aerial port teams to run challenge events in our career field," said  U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Wilbur George, 726th AMS aircraft services superintendent and native of Clarksville, Tennessee. "The round up is compiled of a challenge course to see which teams are the best."

The first day of the Round Up, service members had to perform their Air Force specialty challenges.

"For aerial port, you have to do 10K and 25K obstacle courses, and pallet buildup," George said. "Everything that we do on day one are things they've learned throughout the job."

The second day consisted of a 3-mile run with more than 10 obstacles.

"This competition gives everybody an outlook of how we do things, why our job is important and how we help sustain the Air Mobility Command mission by moving cargo and making sure planes stay in the air," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Clifford Browne, 729th Air Mobility Squadron, Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal, and native of Newport News, Virginia. "This is good practice and a fun way to stay interested in our job, to know what we actually do and stay focused for the bigger mission."

The overall winners of the obstacle course in the maintenance and aerial port categories were teams from the 721st Aerial Port Squadron and 721st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

"The camaraderie really stands out to me" said competitor U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Kevin Dunn, 52nd Logistics Readiness Squadron and native of Fresno, California. "I think it's really cool that we all get together, meet people from all around USAFE-AFAFRICA. Even though you have never met them you still have that connection doing the same job.