Minot Roughrider crew members compete in Global Strike Challenge

Published Sept. 21, 2011
By Airman 1st Class Jessica McConnell
Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Airmen from the 91st Operations Group competed here during the week of Sept. 19-23 as part of this year's second annual Global Strike Challenge, which is an Air Force Global Strike Command competition for Air Force ICBM and bomber forces.

Competing for each missile squadron in this year's competition are ICBM crew members Capt. James Douglas and Lt. Shawn Burnside of the 740th Missile Squadron, Capt. William Wood and Lt. Kevin Johnston from the 741st Missile Squadron, and Capt. Jarod Miller and Lt. Charlie Bennett from the 742nd Missile Squadron.

During the competition, crew members are evaluated on their ability to respond to different scenarios during a two hour ride in the trainer, which is meant to simulate an alert that members normally complete six to eight times a month.

"The competition is very fast-paced in that several scenarios are presented to the crew members at once," said Lt. Col. Donald Davis, 741st MS commander and ICBM operations lead for the competition. "The crew members will have to analyze the root cause of the situation, and many aren't as obvious to fix as they seem."

To prepare for the challenge, Capt. Mitchell Belger, 91st OG GSC training lead, spearheaded the training for the competition, as he has past experience as one of last year's team trainers.

"In preparation for the competition, we spent a total of 60 days training," said Belger. "We trained six days a week for eight to 12 hours a day. Training is comprised of training rides in the simulator where situations are simulated for the crews. When we aren't in the simulator, we train in the classroom on a variety of tactics, techniques and procedures. We also use paper trainers, which the teams use to simulate the actions that they would perform in the trainer."

Assisting in the training efforts are 1st Lt. Brock Marsh, 741st MS missile combat crew commander, 1st Lt. Rob Odell, 741st MS missile combat crew commander, Capt. Jean Purgason, 740th MS MCCC, 1st Lt. Alicia Padrick, 91st OG deputy MCCC, and 1st Lt. Ryan McGinnis, 91st OG DMCCC.

"The training has been really intense," said Johnston. "The main goal is to become experts with the entire weapons system."

While many team members acknowledge the level of difficulty of the training, they continue in an effort to get even better at what they do as a missile combat crew member.

"The challenge is a great way to hone up on our current skill set," said Johnston. "I like a challenge as well, and training for the competition has delivered. I feel honored to participate in the Global Strike Challenge."

Missile combat crew members are trained and held responsible for a number of ICBMs located throughout 8,500 square miles of missile complex in North Dakota. They hold watch over these missiles nonstop for a 24-hour shift in an underground capsule located in one of the 91st Missile Wing's 15 missile alert facilities.

"The challenge is also a great way to learn a lot more information that we normally don't get the chance to," said Douglas. "We learn to prioritize and get faster at correcting a problem. We're also a lot better at handling stress now."

The team members also believe that the competition offers the opportunity to learn new things and pass that knowledge on to others who weren't able to participate in the competition.

"We learn new technical orders during competitions like these," said Douglas. "We are actually testing a new technical order right now. With new information such as this, we get to pass it on to everyone else, so it really benefits the entire wing and the command as a whole."

Final competition scores for the 91st OG portion of the challenge will be revealed during a score posting event in November at Air Force Global Strike Command Headquarters in Barksdale AFB, La.

Roughrider crew members compete in GSC