The 62nd Airlift Wing won the top award at this year’s Air Mobility Rodeo skills competition at McChord Air Force Base.

The wing, the largest active-duty unit at McChord, received the award for best air mobility team during the closing ceremonies Friday evening. The Rodeo is a biennial competition drawing more than 100 teams from the U.S. Air Force and foreign militaries, which compete in more than 50 on-the-ground and in-the-air events.

Judges also honored the 62nd Airlift Wing for having the best C-17 Globemaster III team and the best airdrop team. It also won the aerial port challenge team course, joint inspection team, low-level airdrop crew, overall C-17 aircrew and C-17 post-flight team competitions.

The security forces team from the 446th Airlift Wing, the main Reserve unit at McChord, also won first place. The wing was finished first in the fit-to-fight and C-17 maintenance competitions.

And the 92nd Air Refueling Wing from Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane won the best security forces combat weapons team competition.

In the woods outside McChord Air Force Base, a four-man security forces team critiqued their response to a mock sniper attack. High overhead, cargo jets airdropped pallets onto a target.

And on a grassy field packed with tents dubbed Rainier Ranch, airmen from Turkey and the United States struck up an impromptu push-up contest. Members of the Israeli air force presented a McChord reservist with gifts Wednesday, six days after he had 18 of them to his Mercer Island home for a Sabbath dinner. A South Korean soldier bummed a cigarette from a Malaysian colleague.

It’s all part of the Air Mobility Rodeo, a biennial competition, training session and party at McChord this week that drew more than 2,500 airmen from around the world.

The Rodeo, which holds more than 50 events like aerial refueling, fitness competitions and medical evacuation drills, concludes today.

The competitions get serious; the margin of victory can be as little as a few seconds or a few feet, and teams practice for weeks before. But have no doubt: Rainier Ranch is party central.

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The Air Force’s acquisition strategy to replace its aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers will be "bulletproof" from contractor protests, its secretary said Wednesday.

Michael B. Donley told several hundred airmen gathered at the Air Mobility Command Rodeo competition at McChord Air Force Base that the service wants to avoid the turmoil that derailed last year’s selection process, when the military awarded the $35 billion contract to Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.

The Boeing Co. protested the decision, and the issue quickly turned political. The contract was thrown out, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates put off a final decision so the new administration could make the final choice.

Donley, who has been in the Air Force’s top civilian job since October 2008, said the service remains committed to replacing the Eisenhower-era KC-135 Stratotanker.

"We had lots of opportunities to bypass the tanker program, to skip over it, to say, ‘Too hard to get it done,’" he said at a town-hall-style meeting. "We’ve tried over the past five or six years to get that program done. And we have failed in that mission, and we still have work to do."

"We’re going to get the United States Air Force a new tanker," he said over the sound of cheers. "We’re going to get it done."

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More than 2,500 airmen from 25 countries and almost every airlift unit in the Air Force are at McChord Air Force Base this week for the Air Mobility Command Rodeo.

The event offers 52 competitions, ranging from security-forces scenario drills to airdrop competitions. McChord also played host in 2007 to the most recent Rodeo.

"The coordination for Rodeo 2009 really started almost the day after Rodeo 2007 was completed," said Maj. Gen. Brooks Bash, the Rodeo commander, in a press release. "McChord Air Force Base, with the 62nd Airlift Wing and the 446th Airlift Wing as well as the local community, have been planning this event for that long."

It can be a pretty cool experience. The teams all set up hospitality tents in a grassy field not too far from one of the flight lines. Each tent has its own feel to it, often playing up the regional specialties. In 2007, the United Arab Emirates tent had big cushions on which to sit, and the hosts handed out dates. The guys from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii were whipping up mai-tais, and the airmen from Altus Air Force Base in Okalahoma had barbecue and beer.

The Rodeo is considered a training exercise and isn’t open to the public, but we’ll be there this week for at least one story.

The Air Mobility Command Rodeo returns to Fort Lewis next month. From the public affairs office:

MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. - More than 100 teams and 2,500 people from the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, as well as allied nations, are expected to participate in Rodeo 2009, Air Mobility Command's premier mobility competition, set to take place July 19 - 25, 2009 here.

"This year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of this competition with our international partners," said Lt. Col. Philip Kase, Rodeo 2009 McChord director. "We are excited to continue this important friendship and look forward to an unforgettable Rodeo."

The international competition focuses on readiness, and features airdrops, aerial refueling and other events which showcase the unique and wide-ranging capabilities of military security forces, and aerial port, maintenance and aeromedical evacuation personnel.

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We're late on this, but wanted to pass along that on Saturday, one local law enforcement leader took over for another as commander of the Coast Guard's Port Security Unit 313, out of the Port of Tacoma.

Cmdr. Jim Andrews, chief of police in University Place, succeeded Cmdr. Jim Howatson, a captain assistant chief at the Tacoma Police Department.

The unit returned last month from a seven-month deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was deployed in 2003 to the Persian Gulf to protect Iraqi oil platforms at the start of the war.

The 313th includes a mix of 140 active-duty and mostly reserve Coast Guardsmen.

If you didn't get enough of the Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 this week out at McChord, fear not: The Air Force has put up a ton of stuff about it on the Air Mobility Command web site.

There's the story about the twin brothers competing on different teams. There's a story about the McChord airmen working behind the scenes to keep the communications running, and one about the umpires who score the precision landing competition by getting out on the runway and feeling for hotspots where the rubber met the road.

And best of all, the big end-of-event awards ceremony,complete with light show and blazing house soundtrack, was webcast live.

Holy cow -- it was a production not unlike Oscar night.

"Within this hangar are the best air mobility warriors in the world!" the rodeo commander, Brig. Gen. Kip Self, hollered after riding into the hangar-turned-set aboard a vintage roadster. "Damn straight! Give yourself a hand!"

Most of the award winners were announced Thursday (for a complete list click here). Local winners included:

• Best Aeromedical Evacuation Contingency Crew - 446th Airlift Wing, McChord.

• Best C-17 Postflight Team - 62nd Airlift Wing, McChord.

The top 15 awards, were announced at this afternoon's extavaganza. The local winners:

• Best Security Forces Team – 62nd Airlift Wing, McChord.

• Best Aeromedical Evacuation Team – 446th Airlift Wing, McChord.

The award for Best C-17 Team went to ... shock and horror! ... the 60th Air Mobility Wing from Travis Air Force Base. The home team comes up short.

The Travis gang from Fairfield, Calif., also hauled in the Maintenance Knucklebuster Award, the Best C-5 Team, Best C-17 Team, Best KC-10 Team, Best Tanker Team, and Best Air Land Team.

And so there was little surprise when Self announced that the winner of the overall Best Mobility Team trophy, delivered by retired Gen. Ron Fogelman via Harley Davidson to the strains of an AC/DC song that I can't just place at the moment, is. ... Travis.

So much for home field advantage.

Congrats to all.