News>From the Ground Up: Climbing to the Top of the World
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Capt. Kyle "Husky" Martin gains the ridge of Ama Dablam during a trip to eastern Nepal in 2012. The main peak, which stands at 22,349 feet, is one of the most popular Himalayan Mountain climbs permitted to the public. Martin is an Air Force Academy graduate and now serves as the T-38 division chief for the 1st Operations Group at Langley Air Force Base, Va. He will attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest next month. (courtesy photo)
Capt. Kyle "Husky" Martin trains for rock climbing in Iwate prefecture, Japan prior to Ama Dablam in 2012. Martin is wrapping up an 18-month training regimen and will soon join the rest of the USAF 7 Summits Challenge Team in Nepal as they prepare to climb Mt. Everest next month. (Courtesy photo)
Then Capt. Rob Marshall and 1Lt. Mark Uberuaga pose with the American Flag at the top of Mount Elbrus, Europe in 2005. The first-summit climb was self-guided and in memory of the fallen Air Commandos aboard the USAF MC-130H, Call-sign "Wrath 11", lost in Albania earlier that year. The team of Airmen will attempt to climb Mount Everest in April 2013. (Courtesy photo)
USAF 7 Summits Challenge Team members place a plaque to the crew of Wrath 11, a MC-130H from the 7 Special Operations Squadron that crashed in Albania the previous year on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in summer of 2007. The team is dedicated to positively highlighting the US Air Force and honoring comrades who have fallen in the line of duty. They will attempt to climb Mount Everest in April 2013. (Courtesy photo)
Members of the USAF 7 Summits Challenge Team trek to the top of Mount Aconcagua, South America in 2007. At 22, 840 ft., Mount Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas. In April of 2013, the team will attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. (Courtesy photo)
Tim Gannon is promoted to the rank of first lieutenant by Capt. Mark Uberuaga at their second camp on Mount McKinley, Alaska, in 2008. As the team climbed on, just a short distance from the summit, they were treated to a surprise other team members had arranged: a roaring visit from the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor. In April of 2013, the team will attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. (Courtesy photo)
Members of the USAF 7 Summits Challenge Team hold the American and Air Force flags at of Antarctica’s highest mountain Mount Vinson in 2010. The team of Airmen will attempt to climb Mount Everest in April 2013. (Courtesy photo)
Members of the US Air Force hold the American and United States Air Force flag at the top of Mt. Kosciuszko, the highest peak on the Australian continent in 2011. Mount Kosciuszko is the sixth peak of their 'USAF 7 Summits Challenge'. The team of Airmen will attempt to climb Mount Everest in April 2013. (Courtesy photo)
Air Force Maj. Rob Marshall skis down from the summit of Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, proudly displaying the Air Force flag in 2011. Martin, a V-22 Osprey pilot, will lead the team of Airmen who will attempt to climb Mount Everest in April 2013. (Courtesy photo)
The USAF 7 Summits Challenge Team is dedicated to positively highlighting the US Air Force and honoring comrades who have fallen in the line of duty. Team members mark their accomplishments with memorial pushups, in honor of their fallen friends, on each summit. The team is not funded by or officially sponsored by the US Department of Defense or the US Air Force.
by Sachel Seabrook
Air Combat Command Public Affairs
3/28/2013 - LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. -- Six continents. Seven years. More than 100,000 feet climbed and next month, the USAF 7 Summits Challenge team is setting out to climb to the top of the world.
At 29,035 ft., Mount Everest is the highest peak on Earth. If successful, six Airmen will become the first American military team to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first team of military service members from any nation to reach all seven summits. Airmen who are making the trek to Everest are stationed all across the country, including two right here at Headquarters Air Combat Command.
"For me, it's not about making history," said Capt. Kyle "Husky" Martin. "It's about proudly representing something larger than me."
Nicknamed Husky for sleeping out in the snow multiple times, Martin first started climbing 10 years ago. He heard about the Air Force 7 Summit challenge when he joined the United States Air Force Academy mountaineering club as a young cadet. Now a T-38 pilot and division chief for the 1st Operations Group, the Manhattan, Kan., native has climbed many mountains, including Ama Dablam, a mountain in the Himalayan range of eastern Nepal relatively close to Mount Everest.
"Ama Dablam is the climb I'm most proud of," he said excitingly. "It's rock climbing, ice climbing and really, really exposed to base camp, which is 4,000 ft. below you."
Led by Maj. Rob Marshall, a 34-year-old Special Operations pilot who has successfully conquered more than 30 peaks, the USAF 7 Summits Challenge team is dedicated to one thing: honoring fallen comrades by carrying the American and Air Force flags to the highest point on each continent.
Those fallen comrades include several of Marshall's friends who were killed when an Air Force MC-130, call sign Wrath 11, crashed in the Albanian mountains in 2005. Two months later, tragedy struck again when two more of Marshall's friends, Captains Derek Angel and Jeremy Fresques, also died with three other Airmen in a small-plane crash near Diyala, Iraq.
"Remember walking around a track to raise money for your school or charity?" Marshall asked. "Well, I decided to take it vertical."
For every thousand feet the team climbs, they ask people to donate towards the college education of their fallen comrade's children.
In addition to Captain Martin, the Everest team includes:
- Maj. Rob Marshall, 34, a CV-22 pilot, from Mercer Island, Wash., stationed in Amarillo,Tex.
- Capt. Andrew Ackles, 29, a TH-1N instructor pilot, from Ashland, Ore., stationed at Fort
Rucker, Ala.
- Capt. Marshall Klitzke, 30, a KC-135R pilot from Lemmon, S.D., currently an instructor
pilot at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Capt. Colin Merrin, 28, a GPS satellite operations mission commander from Santee,
Calif., stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
- Staff Sgt. Nick Gibson, 36, a reserve pararescueman and physician-assistant student
from Gulf Breeze, Fla., stationed at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.
"This trip is a great way to highlight the resiliency of the Wounded Warrior," said Senior Master Sgt. Robert Disney, a pararescueman and wounded warrior who is ascending to the Everest Base Camp. "I want Airmen to understand that, no matter what their experience or current life position, there is nothing that they cannot overcome."
Along with Disney, two other wounded warriors will be going to the base camp:
- Capt. Augustin "Gus" Viani, 28, a Combat Rescue Officer, stationed at Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base, Ariz.
- Master Sgt. Gino (last name and details withheld for operational security)
Though the team is not sponsored by the Air Force, Disney credits his Air Force training for preparing him for this very moment.
"For a PJ, climbing or mountaineering is just another way of getting to work," he said. "Our Operational Risk Management training prepares us to weigh the risk-to-reward ratios of our choices and to make life-and-death decisions on the fly."
Those risk-management skills, something Husky hopes Airmen pay attention to on and off duty, has contributed to the team's unblemished history of safety and success.
With the team being stationed all over the country, training together becomes a challenge. However Husky managed to get creative when it came to preparing himself for the ultimate climb.
"Since I don't have mountains here in Hampton Roads, I'll go out to the beaches," the captain said. "My daughter is my training partner. She'll add her might 20lbs to the baby backpack and we'll hike through the deep sand in my Everest boots. We look pretty absurd, but she loves to go outside."
Disney also credits his wife Tess for helping him prepare for this moment. With her support, he has gotten back into climbing shape in just two months.
With both men days away from leaving, Disney and Husky both hope to surpass their own limitations and encourage other Airmen do the same.
"Oh and come back with all of my toes," Husky adds. "I definitely want to come back with all of my toes."
