DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Ga. – On the final day of the Air Force Reserve’s biennial air mobility competition Airmen from across the nation made their last best effort to win it all.
The 2012 Port Dawg Challenge has brought together 19 Air Force Reserve Command Aerial Port squadrons from 17 states – including Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii – in a tough competition that focuses on the Air Force’s worldwide mobility capability.
Aerial Port units perform military logistics functions that include passenger and cargo processing, equipment loading, air cargo preparation and load plans, and supervising units engaged in aircraft loading and unloading operations.
Events for this year’s competition test driving and loading prowess, administrative and processing skills, pallet build-up skills, forklift handling, load planning, and physical fitness.
Today was also a chance for each team to ‘put on the dog.’
On Monday, during the welcome social, each team was presented an oversized rawhide bone, and was instructed to protect it and decorate it as desired. A special prize is to be awarded to the team with the best-decorated bone.
After chewing on ideas for a day or so, teams got busy and some very imaginatively decorated bones started showing up around the competition area here.
Many of the bones reflect the state from which the unit hales, some took a decidedly military tone and others reflected pure fancy. However, all of them show just how passionate these Airmen are about their career field.
The top Port Dawg team will be announced during an awards ceremony this evening, and will have the honor of taking back to their unit the ‘Top Dawg’ trophy – a full-size bronze sculpture of a bulldog. The 27th Aerial Port Squadron from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., won the trophy in 2010.