News

AFA exposition setting for award presentations to 446th Airlift Wing

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  The 446th Airlift Wing will have a presence at the beginning and end of the first day of the Air Force Association's Annual Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition Sept. 14-16, National Harbor, Md. 

At the beginning of the day with the conference opening, the AFA President's Award for Air Force Reserve Command will be presented to the 446th Airlift Wing. This award is for the Air Force Reserve unit which displays outstanding flying achievement and continued superior performance. The wing earned this award for its rescue mission in December 2007 of a stranded fishing trawler in the Antarctic. 

At the end of the AFA exposition's first day, Staff Sgt. Channel Bolton-Scholl will be honored as one of the Air Force's 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year. Sergeant Bolton Scholl is assigned to the 446th Maintenance Squadron here and is currently deployed to Kuwait. However, she will return from deployment in time to attend the awards dinner. 

The AFA President's Award recognizes the quick action and versatile airpower of the 446th Airlift Wing's aircrew and C-17 Globemaster. Locked in the ice flow off the Ross Ice Shelf for six days, the Argos Georgia was without power and in need of a new engine piston and critical supplies. Reserve pilots Maj. Tom Jensen, 97th Airlift Squadron, and Maj. Mark Brown, 313th Airlift Squadron, and loadmasters Chief Master Sgt. Jim Masura, 446th Operations Group, Senior Master Sgt. Lance Gustafson, 313th AS, and Master Sgt. Scott Dellinger, 728th AS, airdropped the engine part weighing about 150 pounds. The airdrop was done at about 400 feet from the water at 150 knots. 

Argos Georgia Limited's director of operations, Peter Thomson, said in January 2008, "The U.S. Air Force was fantastic. They offered to drop the package on the deck, but I had visions of it smashing through the bridge. So, they dropped it nearby on the ice with a large buoy and put a 20-pound box of chocolates inside." 

Airdropping an engine in the ice fields of the Antarctic was a first, as is the selection of a 446th AW Reservist as one of the Air Force's 12 Outstanding Airman of the Year. This is the first time a member of the 446th Airlift Wing has gone to the top in this annual competition. Sergeant Bolton-Scholl reached that level of the competition after being named Air Force Reserve Command Outstanding Airman of the Year.

A crew chief with 446th MXS, the Eugene, Ore., native was chosen by an Air Force selection board at the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. The board selected 12 Airmen for recognition based on superior leadership, job performance and personal achievements.