Sole female team takes on Knighthawk Challenge

Photo By Spc. Emily Wilsoncroft | Spc. Kimberly Burton and Spc. Andrea Hernandez, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, rest after flipping a tire from a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle approximately 40 yards as part of the Knighthawk Challenge March 16 at Camp Striker.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

03.18.2008

Story by Spc. Emily Wilsoncroft 

3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

By Spc. Emily J. Wilsoncroft
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Specialists Andrea Hernandez and Kimberly Burton did not set out to win the Knighthawk Challenge – at least, not in any traditional sense.

The two best friends, both from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, said they signed up for the battalion-wide competition, held March 16 at 2-3 Avn. Regt.'s headquarters, as a way of testing their own limitations.

"We thought it would be something fun to do," said Hernandez, a native of San Diego, Calif., wiping the sweat from her forehead after completing 54 sit-ups in her first event. "We trained for a month."

As the only all-female team in the competition, Burton and Hernandez knew they wanted to make their mark amid their male counterparts.

"Just because we're smaller, it doesn't mean we can't do the same stuff they can," Hernandez said. "We wanted to show people what we can do."

"I knew we weren't going to win," Burton said, "but once you finish it all, accomplish everything and do your best, you feel good. We wanted to show everyone that we have strength, we have guts and we can take care of ourselves."

What they could do boiled down to 10 events: push-ups and sit-ups; weapons assembly; communications; preventive maintenance checks and services on a Humvee; dips; bench-presses; combat life-saving tasks; recitation of the Soldier's Creed and Dog Face Soldier Song; a quiz on their knowledge of their chain of command and NCO support channel; and the most unconventional, a "tire-flip," in which the team had to flip a tire from a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle for a total of 40 yards.

Most of the tasks were not foreign for the two, but still were far from the jobs they do on a regular basis as aviation operations specialists.

This lack of familiarity proved to be an obstacle – especially during the CLS and tire-flip events – although not an insurmountable one.

"Yeah, we flip tires every day for, like, an hour," Burton joked. Moments before that event, she had good-natured lain still as Hernandez worked determinedly to insert and remove an IV from her teammate's arm under simulated combat conditions.

Burton and Hernandez combined their efforts to succeed not only while maneuvering the larger-than-life tire, but throughout the entire competition.

They even exceeded their own expectations in some events.

"When we first started training, neither of us could do even one dip," Burton said. Combined, the two had completed five dips in two minutes, each one rooting the other on from the sidelines.

"She (bench-pressed) a ton more weight than she usually does," Hernandez said of her teammate, who had just finished pressing 125 pounds in the event.

The Soldiers' platoon sergeant, Staff Sgt. Glen Porter, supervised the competition and said he was pleased with their performance.

"I thought they did an outstanding job," he said. "They're great Soldiers, and they showed a lot of leadership potential by volunteering for this. They're a good example of what all young aviation specialists should be."

Although they didn't win – they placed 15th out of 20 teams – both Burton and Hernandez said they were glad they'd completed the Challenge and put all they could into it.

The women said they'd be more than willing to participate again in the competition, which was the second of its kind for the battalion during its current deployment.

"We definitely would (compete)," Burton said. "Now that we did it, we can do it again."

The overall winners of the Knighthawk Challenge were Chief Warrant Officers Robert Rayner and Matthew Groover, Company C, 2-3rd Avn. Regt.

• Date Taken: 03.18.2008
• Date Posted: 03.24.2008 09:03
• Story ID: 17650
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ