47th FS hosts Turkey Shoot

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Crystal M. Jordan
  • 917th Wing Public Affairs
Barksdale Air Force Base, La. --  The 47th Fighter Squadron on Barksdale Air Force Base, La., kicked off their annual squadron Turkey Shoot, a flying competition to evaluate the ability of A-10 Thunderbolt II pilots attached to the unit Jan. 7 through Jan. 9.

The aerial competition, which evaluated the tactical guile and bomb dropping and strafing abilities of the pilots, was held at the at Claiborne Range, an air-to-ground gunnery range located three hours South of Barksdale.

"The challenging nature of the scenario generated the need for clever tactics, creating unforeseen friction," said Maj. Robert Hetland, flight commander for the 47th FS.

The 47th FS Intelligence shop captured video footage of the weapons systems during the two-day spectacle, which was used for review.

In the end, the highest scores were earned by the pilots who were most tactically sound, accurate and had the least amount of costly mistakes.

The top individual pilot was Lt. Col. Brady Glick, the 917th Operations Chief of Standard Evaluation.

Second was Lt. Col. Marc Olson, an assistant director of operations for the 47th FS.

Third was Lt. Col. James Marks, an assistant director of operations for the 47th FS as well.

Colonel Glick and Colonel Olson, along with Lt. Col. Michael Shultz, an A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot attached to the 47th FS and Lt. Col. David Deaton, chief of safety for the 917th Wing earned the top four- ship flight award.

The 917th Munitions Squadron and 717th Maintenance Squadron supported the airborne spectacle by building inert bombs, generating 24 sorties and providing 30mm ammunition for the event.

The 917th Operation Support Squadron, along with Claiborne Range personnel positioned threat arrays which were also a key to the success of the competition.