Rodeo results recount

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  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. --  Discovery of a programming error in the Air Mobility Rodeo scoring system has the 62nd Airlift Wing/627th Air Base Group Rodeo combo team winning Best C-17 Wing.

"This is great news!" said Col. R. Wyn Elder, 62nd Airlift Wing commander. "Our Airmen work hard every day to provide the best combat airlift in the world and it's an honor for them to be recognized at the premier mobility competition in the world for their outstanding work. The fact that the combined 62AW/627ABG team was able to win "Best C17 Wing" at a joint base is a testament to the teamwork our Airmen demonstrate every single day throughout the world. "

The programming error, isolated to the C-17 and C-130 Container Delivery System airdrop scores, was discovered Aug. 18 by Air Mobility Command officials and changed the results of several major awards.

"There is an automated process in the scoring algorithm which improperly assigned a median score for an event," said Maj. Gen. Frederick H. Martin, AMC director of operations and Rodeo commander.

"This program error was not found in testing," said Martin. "All manual scoring processes were triple checked; however, there was not a final check for one critical portion of the automated scoring processes."

Best C-17 Wing was incorrectly awarded to the 97th Air Mobility Wing, Altus Air Force Base, Okla. The 97th AMW actually finished in second place.

"It feels really good," said Maj. Scott Huffstetler, aircrew team chief. "We were all disappointed when the results first came out, but knowing all of the hard work and effort on everyone's part that went into this, finding out now that we won is really exciting."

During Rodeo the combo team also walked away with additional awards not affected by the error including another major award, Best Aerial Port Team, as well as the Best C-17 Preflight trophy and the Best In-Transit Visibility team.

"We can't forget that we have over 500 Airmen deployed around the globe right now defending our nation. This award is just as much a statement about the quality of their work as it is the competition itself," said Elder. "Team McChord prides itself on being the best mobility Airmen every day - not just at the Rodeo competition. Colonel Hasberry and Chief Warren and I are so proud of our Airmen!"

Air Mobility Rodeo, sponsored by AMC, is an international Mobility Air Force's readiness competition focusing on improving worldwide air mobility wartime core abilities. Rodeo 2011 was held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord July 24-29.

(AMC Public Affairs contributed to this article.)