Rookie firefighter combat challenge heats up

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kamaile Chan
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The 312th Training Squadron hosted the 4th Annual Rookie Firefighter Challenge Saturday at the Louis F. Garland Department of Defense Fire Academy training grounds here.

Seventeen teams participated in this years challenge, also known as "the toughest two minutes in sports."

The first part of the course requires participants to carry a 45-pound hose up five stories. Once there, another 45-pound hose is hoisted up the five flights. The next leg of the obstacle simulates forceable entry with participants swinging a sledge hammer to a 65-pound block. The final leg of the course requires participants to drag a hose approximately 50 feet aiming for a target ten feet away. A 175-pound dummy awaits the 50-foot drag to the finish line.

The members of the SAM Squad firefighter combat challenge team, Marine Staff Sergeants Charles Ammon and Nicholas Cook, Marine Sgt. William Alexander and Air Force Staff Sergeants William Gates and Kevin Wasiewski, kept a close eye on the participants as they went through each leg of the course.

The top three teams at this year's challenge were--1st Place: Team Rhino (Air Force students), 2nd Place: The Connection (Marine students), and 3rd Place: Army Strong (Army instructors).