Twenty-six teams with stamina, marksmanship, athleticism, military knowledge, and the ability to think on their toes kicked off the Amazing Race at the parade deck here May 22.
It was team Iron Men’s composed of Jon Pickering, Darrell Campbell, Tommy Bryan, and Josimar Hernandez that took the victor with an adjusted final time of 1:26:10.
Although most teams consisted of four people with only four hours to complete the 8 and a half mile race, Iron Men’s had a fifth member, team coach Javier Melendez.
“We had a team captain but also a coach; it was our strategy to have a coach with us,” said Hernandez.
It was a bold strategy that paid off for the team as they took first place beating second place team the 69ers by over 10 minutes.
The race began at the parade deck in three waves, with each wave starting the race five minutes after the previous.
Once the teams were released to begin, they darted off in every direction, running about the air station with the plan to fill their passport with stickers as they went from one activity to the next.
“I think it helps the new people get to know the base,” said Toniesha Gaddis.
There were a total 15 different activities the contestants could participate in at locations all around the air station.
Each team was given one passport to have stickers placed on to ensure eachteam satisfactorily completed each
activity.
If a team completed the activity, it would receive a red sticker. If the team chose to skip the activity, it would be given a blue sticker.
Each team was afforded the opportunity to skip three activities with no penalty, but if it skipped a fourth activity and received a fourth blue sticker it would receive a 30-minute penalty.
Teams were also able to earn bonus time at certain locations.
Each passport had 15 spots for gold stickers at the bottom to indicate bonus time.
Each gold sticker represented five minutes of bonus time that would be subtracted from the final time unadjusted.
At the conclusion of the race, station commander Col. Michael A. O’Halloran presented the three winning teams with their prizes.
The first place team members attributed their success to their coach, coach Melendez, who said “they did a really great job out there.”