Oregon Air Guard unit flies high in competition  Prev | Next

From Bend.com news sources
Posted: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 9:06 AM
Reference Code: PR-19586

November 24 - PORTLAND - The Oregon Air National Guard's Fightin' Redhawks from Portland's 142nd Fighter Wing returned this past weekend from Tyndall AFB, Fla., after placing second overall in the U.S. Air Force's William Tell Air-to-Air Weapons Competition. The only Air Guard unit selected to attend the coveted meet, Oregon earned the competition's Top Maintenance Team award among the five US Air Force teams competing between Nov.8-19, 2004.

Easily the competition's most seasoned maintenance team, Oregon's team members averaged over 17 years of experience and helped score 11,390 of the team's 37,390.5 points. With 50,000 points possible, the Pacific Air Forces Team from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, won the competition with 39,834.5. "The results of the William Tell competition are the product of years of hard work," said Col. Brad Applegate, 142nd Fighter Wing Commander, "I'm extremely proud of the team's efforts which is a clear demonstration of our superb combat capability."

Oregon's pilots also won two of the five flying scenarios, or profiles. The different scenarios flown during William Tell included: Profile I - two fighters versus four adversaries; Profile II was a live-fire missile shoot; Profile III was four fighters versus an unknown number of aggressors; Profile IV was the combat banner gun mission; and Profile V was the Operation Noble Eagle night-scramble scenario.

In contrast, Oregon had the youngest pilot in the competition, 27-year-old 1st Lt Mike Kosderka, and the unit flew the oldest F-15's in the Air Force inventory. The 142nd flies the oldest F-15 in service (tail number 089, with over 30 years of service)

"We lacked the upgrades the active duty units enjoyed, but our training and experience compensated for what we didn't have in equipment," said Maj. Garret Schmidt, the deployment's team captain.

"We never expected any one team to walk away with it, and nobody did
walk away with it," said Lt. Col. Ed Nagler, William Tell director and
member of the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group at Tyndall. "It was
incredibly close from the beginning to the end."

This was the first William Tell held in eight years, but officials say
they plan to continue the competition on a regular basis. The next
William Tell is planned for 2007, officials said.

Quoted: This was the first William Tell held in eight years,

BS I was there in '98 deployed with the 53rd FS 52FW SP,GE.

So tell the Air Force they don't know what's up.

However, after doing some searching I found that the last REAL OFFICIAL William Tell was held in 1996.

Strange how the USAF is full of shit...

www2.acc.af.mil/williamtell/

1996 TOP UNIT
TEAM CANADA  CF-18A
 
TOP GUN  
CAPT. STEVE NIERLICH CF-18A  
4TH WG-CFB COLD LAKE, ALBERTA, CANADA  






1990:  Competition canceled due to Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM
1992:  18th Wing, Kadena AB, Japan
1994:  119th Fighter Group, Fargo, North Dakota
1996:  Canada's 4th Wing, CFB Cold Lake, Alberta
1998-2002:  Competition canceled
2004: Pacific Air Forces team, Elmendorf AFB, Ak

Quoted: Quoted: This was the first William Tell held in eight years, BS I was there in '98 deployed with the 53rd FS 52FW SP,GE.

I wonder if all the latest F-15 stuff the Elmendorf guys have played a factor in winning the competition?