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Travis team places first in national firefighting competition

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jeremy Larlee
  • Air Force Print News
ATLANTA --  A team of firefighters from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., finished first in the individual heats portion of the 2006 U.S. National Firefighter Combat Challenge held here Oct. 13-14.

In the individual heat team competition, the best three team member times were totaled for the team time. The Travis team also finished third in the relay competition.

Members of the Travis team are no stranger to winning the grueling physical event, as they also won the national title last year and were crowned the world champions the past two years.

Team captain Tech. Sgt. Mike Melton, who also had the second fastest time in the event at 1:32, said the secret to his team's success is that no single person is held higher than the team.

"Our team dynamic is one of unity and working together to get to our goal," said the Air Force reservist. "Regardless of performance level, no individual is better than the team as a whole."

The course was littered with daunting physical challenges including a six-story climb and descent of a tower, hoisting a 45-pound weight six stories, using numerous hammer impacts to move a 160-pound weight, dragging a hose 120 feet to douse a target and the home stretch; carrying a 175-pound dummy backwards the final 120 feet. If this isn't difficult enough, the competitors do all of this while wearing more than 40 pounds of equipment and a helmet.

Even though he had a good completion time on the course, Sergeant Melton said he felt under the weather entering the competition and he pushed on because he knew his team needed him.

"It was a tough course," said the veteran firefighter who has captained the Travis team since getting off active duty several years ago. "It was an honor to win with the great competition we faced. We really fought through everything to come out on top as a team."

Active-duty and civilian firefighters from the 60th Air Mobility Wing and reservists from Air Force Reserve Command's 349th AMW formed the Travis team. They were not the only Defense Department team to have a good showing.

The relay event, which had team members completing one portion of the course and then handing off a baton to their next team member, was won by the SAM Squad from Goodfellow AFB., Texas. The squad, named "SAM" for "Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines," is a multi-service team and is only two years old.

The teams will next compete in the worldwide competition held at Las Vegas Nov. 7-11. (AFRC News Service)