Photo By Tech. Sgt. Tarelle Walker | Participants and judges pose for a group photo after an awards presentation for the...... read more read more
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM, Hawaii— For the first time in over a decade, personnel from the 15th Wing, 154th Wing and 298th Air Base Defense Group participated in a friendly operational competition known as a “Turkey Shoot”.
Multiple unit-level competitions took place involving events such as timed signal competitions, boom operations, mission planning, aircraft servicing and offensive counter-air flying. In past iterations, the competition followed a similar format, but this one had a unique addition.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a multi-domain competition to this scale with [this] many kinds of assets from different core missions of the Air Force,” said Maj. Stefan Morell, chief of weapons and tactics for the 15th Wing, 154th Wing and the 298th Air Defense Group and exercise director for the Turkey Shoot competition.
Throughout the competition, participants from multiple squadrons were able to display their expertise during simulated combat scenarios where they were judged and graded on their execution of various skill sets including mission planning.
“Basically they’re given a tactical scenario where they plan to fly into a certain area and they are timed and given different limitations to plan against to see who can create the most viable product,” said Capt. Joseph Carl, 535th Airlift Squadron weapons officer and the C-17 lead planner during the Turkey Shoot competition.
Although this kind of competition was focused on training, it also served the purpose of connecting operators and subject matter experts from multiple airframes, specialties and units.
“It’s increasing bonds between all the different operators that would logically work together in the event of combat against the same mission sets,” said Morell. “That way, we get the relationship established ahead of time and we’re not trying to forge these relationships after a conflict has already started.”
The competition also benefited total force integration initiatives by allowing each organization to work together to simulate real world operations.
“The integration is important because we get to see how each squadron operates on a day-to-day basis and then come together as a wing… It’s important to see our limitations, our strengths and to see how we can come together and achieve something that we wouldn’t have been able to achieve by ourselves,” said Carl.
Although the competitive spirit may be strong, participants said the larger goal was to practice how they play.
“There’s healthy competition, but at the end of the day, a lot of the elite warfighters got to the position they’re in because they’re inherently competitive people and they’re always striving to be the best and to make their teams the best they can be,” said Morell.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2025 19:56 |
| Story ID: | 494800 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 49 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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