Photo By Senior Airman Felicia Przydzial | A U.S. Air Force Combat Weather Airman prepares a weather sensor during Thunder...... read more read more
Teams of Combat Weather Airmen from across the Air Force competed in Thunder Challenge 2024, Oct. 7-9, 2024, at Fort Riley, Kansas.
Thunder Challenge is an annual competition designed to test tactical proficiencies necessary for a battlefield environment and Combat Weather Airmen’s ability to infuse weather capabilities at the forward edge.
“Environmental analysis and intelligence are essential components of warfare that enable effective application of air, ground and naval assets,” said Master Sgt. Michael Cobb, 93d Air Ground Operations Wing’s Combat Weather Operations Senior Enlisted Leader. “These competitions are important because we are able to gather our Combat Weather experts from across the world to share knowledge, measure proficiency and compete against each other to push ourselves further.”
Five teams competed in the challenge consisting of Airmen assigned to the 1st Combat Weather Squadron (CWS) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; the 3rd CWS at Fort Cavazos, Texas; the 7th CWS based out of Wiesbaden, Germany; the 18th CWS at Fort Liberty, North Carolina; and the 607th CWS out of Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea.
This annual event is the career field’s opportunity to share best practices and measure each unit’s mastery of core competencies required to operate weather equipment, perform environmental analysis and execute tactical battlefield requirements as required by a Staff Weather Officer (SWO) supporting the Army.
“All of these skills that we are competing with are skills we would need to deploy with the Army or any scenario with the Joint Force,” said Col. Erica Haas, 5th Combat Weather Group Commander at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. “Exercising these skills and cross talking with other units on how we complete them is going to be helpful for our Airmen in the future.”
These Airmen competed in a modified Army Combat Fitness Test, augmented reality marksmanship and tactical shooting events, land navigation, simulated casualty care scenarios, weighted ruck marches, weather equipment implementation and combat weather knowledge assessments.
“These events show that our Airmen can do the things we need to do when we go out into the field or deploy with the Army, and they validate the training we do,” said 1st Lt. Gabriel Benson, 3rd CWS Detachment 2 Officer in Charge of Aviation Weather Operations.
The team of Senior Airman Richard Husband, Master Sgt. Joey Putis and 1st Lt. Brian Parrott from the 3rd CWS took first place in Thunder Challenge 2024.
1st Lt. Zachary Watson, 18 CWS, earned an award for being the “Fittest” SWO, and Senior Airman Cameron Thomas, 18 CWS, earned an award for his tactical expertise and career field knowledge.
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2024 12:07 |
| Story ID: | 483639 |
| Location: | FORT RILEY, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 129 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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