Photo By Tech. Sgt. Jamal Sutter | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Clifford Mapp, an air transportation specialist with the...... read more read more
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The 94th Airlift Wing hosted the 5th biennial Port Dawg Challenge (PDC) April 23-25 at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.
The PDC is Air Force Reserve Command's premier aerial port competition created to promote professionalism, demonstrate global mission capabilities and help identify best practices to improve wartime readiness.
During the three-day event, 26 teams of air transportation specialists or “port dawgs” competed in 12 activities that tested their technical expertise, while fostering teamwork and camaraderie within the aerial port career field.
Adding to the success of the previous four PDCs, this year’s challenge brought in two active-duty teams and a team each from the Air National Guard and Royal Air Force to make claims on being the best of the best. This was the first time any units outside of the Air Force Reserve competed. The addition of the four new teams made it the largest PDC to date.
“[With] each competition, it seems like it increases a little bit more,” said Chief Master Sgt. Lonnie Patchen, AFRC aerial port career field functional manager. “The first couple of years, it was just Reserve. [Then] we started incorporating [the Air National] Guard into some of our umpire staff areas. This year, we’ve added not only Guard, but also active-duty [Air Force] and the [Royal Air Force].”
Activities within the PDC included a 25K-loader obstacle course, a joint inspection cargo load, a pallet build up, a fitness challenge, classroom-style tests and more. One of the favorite contests was the engine running on-load/off-road (ERO), which involved safely and properly loading cargo onto a C-130 aircraft with engines hot and ready to take off.
“The most exciting event was the ERO, in my opinion,” said Staff Sgt. Dwayne Smith, a load planner with the 81st Aerial Port Squadron out of Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina. “You barely could hear each other. You’re just telepathically talking to each other, basically. But you have to know your job and … do everything [with] the right timing to make everything work.”
Most of the activities were timed, which brought out many teams’ competitive spirits. But the PDC wasn’t all about bragging rights. With the combined experience among the participants, event coordinators and activity umpires, the PDC gave teams of all skill levels a chance to learn new techniques, train with equipment not available at their home stations and grow as professionals.
“Whether it’s to the unit or to the command levels, everybody’s taking ideas back on how we can improve and make a better air transportation person,” Patchen said.
First place honors for this year’s PDC went to the 76th Aerial Port Squadron out of Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio. The 32nd Aerial Port Squadron out of Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania, came in second, followed by the 96th Aerial Port Squadron out of Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.
Winners of each of the 12 individual activities also received recognition, but a port dawg’s true satisfaction comes from taking pride in knowing what they bring to the fight every day by providing military logistical support to aerial ports.
“Port dawgs are inherently proud, because of what they do,” said Chief Master Sgt. Randy Sadler, air transportation career field manager out of the Pentagon. “On any given day, anywhere across the world, we’re supporting folks … whether it’s humanitarian, whether it’s kinetic operations, what we do matters. And for us to get the opportunity to compete and show how well we can perform those warfighting skills, is something unmatched, from what I see, for a lot of other career fields.”
| Date Taken: | 04.27.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2019 13:43 |
| Story ID: | 319790 |
| Location: | DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 169 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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