39th Aerial Port Squadron 'Port Dawg' team among the best

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  • By 302nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  The 302nd Airlift Wing's 39th Aerial Port Squadron took second place out of 26 teams at the Air Force Reserve Command's 2015 Port Dawg Challenge June 18 at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga.

The Port Dawg Challenge is a biennial Air Force Reserve team competition, consisting of 12 events over three days. Aerial porters' job knowledge is judged by a written test, their physical fitness is evaluated during the fit to fight event, and their application of skills and experience is tested in events like pallet build up, engine running onload and offload, and K loader driving and loading.

"Our AFSC [Air Force Speciality Code -- job description] is very diverse, we have a lot of different sections, everything from passenger processing to cargo processing and load planning," said Tech. Sgt. Chris Meyer, 39th APS aerial delivery. "We have a ramp section, whose sole responsibility is loading and unloading our cargo aircraft and doing it safely and expeditiously. We play a very diverse, but intricate role when it comes to getting stuff to the people who need it."

Every one of these sections and the experience of the five aerial port team members were put to the test during the Port Dawg competition. 

"Tech. Sgt. Sara Yong, Tech. Sgt. Chris Meyer, Staff Sgt. Meagan Hasty, Senior Airman Russel Hudson and Senior Airman Nicholas VanZee are top notch Airmen," said Maj. Royce Johnson, 39th APS Commander describing the Port Dawg Challenge team members.

"This team knows their job and they know it well. "When they go out to the field, they do just as well...The second place win shows off this team's ability. It reflects the ability of this squadron as well."

The challenge scorecard backed up Johnson's statement on his team's talent. The 39th Aerial Porters finished in the top three in six of the 12 events. Tech. Sgt. Sara Yong, team chief, received one of two individual accolades awarded at the competition for her score on the written exam, setting the record for this competition at 96-percent.

"We pride ourselves on being a plug and play squadron. That being said we can take any member and put them into any section and they are going to be able to perform that duty," said Meyer.

"You can't train for this event in a week or two weeks," says Hudson, special handling team member. "You have to stay proficient in your job throughout the year."  "We needed to be ready for anything and everything," said Hasty, information control team member.

The next Port Dawg competition is two years away so the 39th APS has time to learn from this year's event. But they do not plan on a different strategy next time. They just plan on continuing their training and performing their job at a high level every day.

"We took our lessons learned, the curve balls, and we are going to put that into UTA training. But our goal is to actually have a brand new team when we go down there and know that whoever we select from the 39th is going to do just as well as the previous team. That is our goal," said Meyer.

The members of the 39th APS Port Dawg Challenge 2015 team were:  Tech Sgt. Sara Yong, Air Transportation Craftsman and Tech. Sgt. Chris Meyer, Staff Sgt. Megan Hasty, Senior Airman Russel Hudson and Nicholas VanZee, who are Air Transportation Journeymen.