AFNWC officers to compete in international swimming competition

  • Published
  • By Kendahl Johnson
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  A Team Kirtland officer and former member of the Air Force Academy swim team will soon dive into competition again, representing both the Air Force and Kirtland in the 2014 Allied Air Component Command Headquarters swimming championships.

2nd Lt. Haley Holcombe, a developmental engineer in the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, was one of six female Airmen picked to participate in the swimming competition June 25-27 at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany.

"I'm really excited," she said. "I was pretty hopeful that I'd be selected, but I knew it would be competitive."

Holcombe, a Snellville, Ga., native, said after she graduated in 2013 and was assigned to Kirtland, it became a goal to participate in this international competition.

"It's a great opportunity," she said. "You get to go to Germany to compete in the sport you love and meet people from air forces all over the world. I'm really looking forward to it."

Holcombe was selected based on her official times in competitions the previous three years. An all-conference swimmer in the Mountain West Conference, she set the Academy record in the 100 meter butterfly (54.80) and is second all-time in the 200 meter butterfly.

Also selected from the AFNWC was 2nd Lt. Alison Ceranski, an engineer is assigned to the ICBM Systems Directorate at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

"I was overjoyed to be selected for the team," Ceranski said. "It gives me a chance to compete in something I love and have been doing for so long. Representing the Air Force in a foreign country will be a great opportunity."

The event is part of the Inter-Nation Sports Programme, which brings together the contributing nations within the HQ AIRCOM in an atmosphere of friendly competition. The U.S. Air Force team will compete against air force teams from Belgium, Germany, Poland, England and the Netherlands.

According to the program's website, the events "reinforce the mutual respect and goodwill that exists between these NATO nations."