Load crews compete for quarterly victory

Three load crews from different squadrons competed against one another to see who the best crew was at the load crew of the quarter competition here April 20.

The winners for this quarter were Staff Sgt. Brian McConnell, Senior Airman Justin Fuller and Senior Airman Oscar Medina, all from the 355th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

“Each flight chief will take their superior performers for each of their sections and submit them to compete with other crews for load crew of the quarter,” said Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Morin, 355th Maintenance Operations Squadron loading standardization crew member. “In this quarter’s competition, three load crews were competing.”

These competitions are mostly a way to boost morale and find out who’s the best. Although, for the crew that wins, they will get the opportunity to test their mettle against other crews later in the year.

“The winner of this quarter will go on to compete for load crew of the year,” Morin said. “The catch is, at least two of the three members that competed for the quarter have to still be on that particular crew. If not, they’re unable to compete.”

Each of the three load crew begins with 3,000 points. For every error they make, points are deducted from the final score. At the end of the competition, the team with the highest score wins. Some of the deductions are missing a step on their checklist, safety and liability violations for munitions, and going over their time limit.

“The competition begins with dress and appearance,” Morin said. “Next is the composite toolkit inspection. The judges will look through their toolkits and check to see if there are any deficiencies or problems. A written test is next followed by the last portion of the competition, which is the loading munitions onto an A-10.”