Kirtland AFB team wins third straight Commander’s Challenge

  • Published
  • By Michael P. Kleiman
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, New Mexico --  Attention junior force members, have you ever wanted to compete on a small team for a few months, let your imagination run wild, build a prototype of a device that can directly assist with the Global War on Terrorism, and demonstrate it in front of a group of flag officers?

A team representing Kirtland AFB did just that, winning the Commander's Challenge for the third year in a row recently!

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Commander's Challenge is conducted annually by AFRL's Rapid Response Technology Team, which is a matrixed science and technology innovation group lead by Dr. Alok Das.

Col. David Glade, AFRL deputy commander, is the program manager for challenge, which gives junior officers, civilians and enlisted members valuable experience interacting with senior leadership and command staffs.

John Gallette from AFRL's RRTT serves as the operations officer and leads a team of seasoned experts and the two team's leadership located at Kirtland AFB, Space Countermeasures Hands-On Program and Center for Rapid Product Development, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Every year, the Secretary of the Air Force picks a topic of relevance to the warfighter that is appropriate for two teams of junior engineers and scientists to work on for six months. 

The goal is to have one or more working prototypes that can rapidly be transitioned to those serving in harm's way.

Both groups receive the basic task, work on the problem and then meet for a head-to-head competition at an appropriate locale.

In April 2008 each team of seven members began addressing their task to tag a vehicle and a person, as well as to track both to a simulated hostage location. To add realism and difficulty, the two squads were not permitted to get closer than 100 meters of either the vehicle or person they were trying to tag and track. Each group had $75,000 to build, buy, borrow, kluge etc., a device or devices that could accomplish the assigned job.

The third competition was held in September at Fort Campbell, Ky. Exercise controllers decided each group should understand how a covert operation is accomplished in the field. Thus, both squads were required to infiltrate over a mile through simulated hostile territory, apply their technology covertly, exfiltrate out again and remotely follow the objective.

Walking a mile may not sound like much of a challenge to most, but the two teams had to do it in the dead of night, through dense Kentucky woods, avoiding simulated hostile patrols, carrying their gear, technology devices and simulated (actual weight) weapons.

"It was both impressive and amusing to watch, especially as they were applying camouflage face paint. We had a couple of service academy grads on the team, plus another guy who'd had some prior field time, but most were new to this sort of thing," said John Holbrook, Space CHOP program lead. "The evening that the Kirtland AFB team was out in the field, it was hot and humid with lots of bugs (chiggers), even after midnight. I was exceptionally proud of each team member. They all got into the spirit of the competition. Each one did a terrific job that night," he said.

The judges agreed with Mr. Holbrook's assessment. The Kirtland AFB team earned another victory and the trophy was presented by AFRL Commander Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, who noted the squad from the New Mexico installation had won the competition three straight years.

"We keep winning the event because of the Space CHOP's outstanding contractor team comprised of George Dietrich, Pete Withers and Jim Holden-Rhodes. It's their advice that turns our teams into perennial victors," said Mr. Holbrook.

"Personnel serving in both the Space Vehicles and Directed Energy Directorates significantly assisted our team's efforts. In addition, the 58th Special Operations Wing was very generous with their time and expertise. So too were the 377th Security Forces, who gave invaluable advice on dog training (both teams had canine representation). The Phillips Research Site Technical Library staff was there when we needed a technical report to review and the 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs' Multimedia section provided exceptional graphic support. Everyone involved did a superb job, he continued.