Airlift rodeo celebrates 55 years

  • Published
  • By Linda Welz
  • Fourth Air Force Public Affairs
2/11/2011 --  Images of cowboys being thrown from bucking broncos or skilled competitors racing out of the chute to rope fleeing calves and winners proudly sporting their prize belt buckles are conjured up for many at the mention of rodeo, a word first used in the English language in 1914 to describe a public entertainment show of horse riding skills.

But mention "rodeo" to a seasoned Air Force pilot or aerial porter and they will most likely tell you about a different kind of competition.

Since 1956, the word rodeo has meant something quite different to those in the business of military aerial delivery. Their type of rodeo is still entertaining and definitely a show of skills, but the "animals" used in this rodeo are the workhorses of the United States Total Force Air Force and its international comrades. The transporters and refuelers (aircraft) are the meat and potatoes of this rodeo competition.

The Continental Air Command, a major command of the U.S. Air Force whose primary responsibility was to administer the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve, gave birth to the competition with the 1956 Reserve Troop Carrier Rodeo at Bakalar Air Force Base, Ind., said Lt. Col. Patrick Kearny, 446th Airlift Wing Process Manager, McChord AFB, Wash.

The Air Force brand of Rodeo, an international combat skills and flying operations competition, was adopted by the active duty when the Eisenhower Administration suggested Military Air Transport Service change its passenger service mission to military airlift and the Kennedy Administration stressed the vitality of rapid global mobility, said Lt. Col. Kearny.

The rodeo competition was a way to advance the Computed Air Release Point aerial delivery technique according to Brig. Gen. Richard Bromiley, Commander, 1501st Air Transport Wing, Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

The CARP method requires the aircrew to file a comprehensive flight plan detailing the route along with the exact time on target. When used correctly, it ensures airdrops are made based on time and allows them to at night or in inclement weather. Refuelers are an integral part of CARP because they allow the transporters to fly continually during long missions.

Today's rodeo is designed to improve standard operating procedures and share developments with international partners in order to optimize mobility partnerships and enhance their operations.

The first competition for the Western Transport Air Force was in July 1961, between two wings flying C-124 Globemaster II aircraft. The 1501st ATW, who had more experience with CARP operations, won the contest with higher scores than the 62nd ATW, McChord AFB, Wash.

Meanwhile, MATS was planning a similar, annual, command-wide competition for its C-124 units. This first official CARP rodeo held at Scott AFB, Ill., April, 1962, included seven wings, each competing with one aircraft and two crews. The three events in the competition were two low-level, daylight, navigational missions and one similar night mission.

The first payloads were 25-pound shot bags attached to miniature parachutes to simulate 225-pound drops. Combat control teams positioned at the drop zones recovered the loads and scored the drops for accuracy.

"The parachute size and the weight of the small bag are in proportion to the parachute size and weight of the real bag so that the drift characteristics are the same," said Maj. Gen. Eric Crabtree, Commander, Fourth Air Force. "The skill involved is the same."

It's easier to have someone pick up a 25-pound bag instead of actually having to move and load a Howitzer or humvee in a manner of minutes," continued General Crabtree, the former Reserve wing commander at McChord. "Because of the intensity of the competition and how closely it is scheduled across the drop zone, this saves a lot of time."

In 1963, MATS directed all units with airdrop capability to train formation flying and the aerial delivery of personnel and equipment using CARP, which led to the addition of three more events at the next rodeo held at Dover AFB, Del., in September. Although the same seven wings competed, two entered a C-130 Hercules aircraft for the first time. In addition, drop teams from the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky., participated in the troop drop event.

The third rodeo of this kind, November 1964 at Hunter AFB, Ga., would have had an additional two wings in the competition, but with the escalation of the Vietnam War, rodeo competitions were canceled, according to McChord Air Museum history.

Competitions resumed in 1969 and included C-141 Starlifters and an Engine Running Off-load event for maintenance teams, which simulates a combat off-load. This was also the first competition to include a physical fitness test, a marksmanship event and a four-mile orienteering course for combat controllers.

By rodeo's fifteenth anniversary, MAC leadership reported that the competition and training had led to greater accuracy with the circular error average decreasing from 200 yards in 1962 to 24.33 yards in 1972. The CEA is the bombing error in a given attack, expressed as the average radial distance of the impacts from the center of the target.

The end of the Vietnam Era saw a military restructuring, which included cutbacks in airdrop training and the discontinuation of rodeo competitions for six years.

By the late 1970s, Defense Department leadership required MAC to be able to rapidly reinforce Europe and send assets to deal with simultaneous crises worldwide. Command leadership knew the old rodeo competition was an excellent way to gauge proficiency levels and improve upon airdrop techniques, as reported on the MAM website.

In June of 1979, rodeo hosted 31 teams who competed with the C-7, C-123, C-130 and C-141 aircraft. Five additional teams entered the competition the following year, including the first international teams from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Two years later, allied aircrews flew in MAC aircraft and MAC crews used copilot assistance for navigators during low level missions, a British procedure. Italy was the first allied nation to win Best Wing overall. The Reserve earned the overall winner title against its active counterparts for the first time in 1985, followed by the Air National Guard in 1986.

The competition's name changed to Airlift Rodeo in 1987 to better emulate its purpose. This was also the year combat control teams performed High Altitude-Low Opening jumps and established drop zones for the first time. Security police teams added overland infiltration events using Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System gear, which uses lasers and blank cartridges to simulate actual battle as well.

The laser gear, also known as MILES, was the precursor to the Simunition gear used today.

"Simunition uses rubber-tipped, live rounds, which are subject to the elements of wind, rain and snow, making them more realistic, as opposed to the laser gear which shoots straight through the elements," said Master Sgt. Daniel N. McDow, a 2002 Rodeo competitor and 452d Air Mobility Wing's combat arms noncommissioned officer in charge.

With the new name and events, this first of the airlift rodeos hosted Bob Hope, who performed while filming a two-hour program for his 84th birthday. President Ronald Reagan and Air Force Secretary Edward Aldridge, Jr. were present for Mr. Hope's show.
 
After skipping a year, due to budget constraints, the 1989 Rodeo was the first to include the C-5 Galaxy, which set a world record drop with four M551 Sheridan light tanks and 73 paratroopers.

By 1994, McChord AFB was selected as the permanent home for rodeo competitions, other than the 2000 event which was held at Pope AFB, N.C., while the host wing at McChord made the transition to C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

The summertime weather tends to be better in Washington than the numerous thunderstorms in North Carolina, which is one reason General Crabtree said McChord was selected. "They also have all of the required facilities for the flying activities; the ranges for airdrops and all the other things they need to run a rodeo scenario."

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, AMC leadership and the U.S. Transportation Command canceled rodeo competitions due to increased operations tempos. However, after five years, and despite its workload, AMC decided the international event was too important to let it die, resuming the competition in 2005, which is when Gen. Crabtree commanded the 446th Airlift Wing at McChord.

"That was the year that McChord (446th AW) won, but I was deployed!" he said.

There for the 2007 Rodeo, the general said it included 12 countries competing and 13 more observing. New to this rodeo were security forces' competitions in combat weapons and combat tactics, and aeromedical contingency flight crews' participation in a medical evacuation event. The team fitness event increased from every team leader and two airmen in 2005 to every team leader and nine airmen in 2007.

"What we found out was the Fit to Fight, sort of a precursor to fight the base, actually influenced the outcome of who took home trophies last year," said Maj. Gen. David "Scott" Gray, Commander, Air Mobility Warfare Center, Fort Dix, N.J. (Fight the base refers to the Air Force's plan to train all Airmen to defend their work stations, regardless of their job specialty.)

The $2.2 million cost of 2007 Rodeo, down from the previous $2.5 million rodeo, is justified by lessons learned, said Maj. Gen. Gray as reported by the McChord Air Museum website.

"Looking at the results of the training and seeing its effectiveness is important," said General Crabtree. "The Air Force Reserve has always had a record of doing very well and having very experienced crews whether it's the tanker operations or the strategic airlift."

Throughout the last 22 years of rodeo competitions, the active duty and Reserve wings at McChord AFB have come out on top of many events compiling more than 47 total rodeo awards, including each being named the best of the best.

"When you go out and make presentations in the communities around the country and you are able to say that you were the ones who won the airlift competition for basically the entire airlift spectrum of the world, it carries a lot of weight beyond what you see at the local level," General Crabtree said.

Team McChord (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) has its eyes on that prize belt buckle once again as international competitors converge on McChord's little corner of the world to compete in the biennial competition in July.