49th Munitions Systems specialists blow away competition

  • Published
  • By 49th Maintenance Squadron
  • 49th Wing Public Affairs

Holloman’s Munitions Systems Specialists left June 10, for the first Air Force Combat Operations Competition held at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

Their hard work and dedication to the mission is what led the 49th Wing commander to nominate them for the competition. Holloman’s Munitions Systems was selected to be one of the three teams to represent Air Combat Command in the competition.

The goal of AFCOCOMP is to increase combat readiness throughout the career field by having home units re-enforce training through competition. The loaders do base load competitions and ammo participates in the Global Strike Challenge, but that competition is not entirely Ammo focused, and only reaches a single major command.

At Holloman, more than 140 Airmen maintain 24-hour operations to provide munitions support to three fighter and three attack squadrons based here out of the munitions storage area, known as the bomb dump. They fill permanent deployment commitments to three locations downrange and various other individual taskings.

 “Our Airmen are very competitive, and they exceed our expectations every day, here and downrange,” said Master Sgt. Nate Schilz, 49th Maintenance Squadron production chief. “AFCOCOMP will bridge this gap, creating an air force-wide Ammo-only competition that spans all aspects of the Munitions Systems career field.”  

Master Sgt. John Williamson, 49th Maintenance Squadron NCOIC of conventional maintenance, will lead the 10-member team throughout training and the competition in June. He plans to train with his team every day to fine-tune their skills, and build their teamwork and communication skills that will be needed to bring home the trophy. 

“We had a lot of people trying to get on the team,” said Williamson. “We can only take 10 people, and the rules breakdown the required skill level and ranks for each team.”

The team consists of: Master Sgt. John Williamson; Tech. Sgts. Shane Robinson and David Scott; Staff Sgts. Adam Henley, Justin Salinas and John Stalnik; Senior Airman Jared Gantt; Airmen 1st Class Shyanna Garcia, Alicia Holcomb and Nicholas Campbell.

The 49th Munitions Systems has a proven track record of winning.

Deployed members have earned squadron NCO and Team of the month awards. Airmen at Holloman earned 26 squadron and group awards and two ACC quarterly awards. These Airmen excelled during the 2017 Unit Effectiveness Inspection when the ACC inspection teams could not find a single finding in the bomb dump, which in-turn led the maintenance group to its best-ever UEI results.