William Tell still anybody’s game

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Tonya Keebaugh
  • William Tell Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) --  “Not in our house” may have been the slogan chanted by the New York Yankees fans during game seven of the league championship series against the Boston Red Sox, but they obviously did not mean it as the Red Sox went on to become the World Champions of baseball.

The Airmen from here, however, seem to mean it.

On their home field, the Air Education and Training Command team is proving to be formidable in the 2004 William Tell air-to-air weapons meet. As of Friday, they were leading in many categories of the competition, including: Top Team, with 25,262.5 points; Top Air Crew Team, with 10,852 points; Top Gun, Capt. Brad Ertmer, with 3,557.5 points; Top Weapons Director Team, with 7,525 points; Top Maintenance Team, with 5,750 points; and they are leading in points for Profiles I and II.

“With a combination of their aircrews, maintainers, weapons directors and weapon loaders, AETC has had them all just come together at the right time and do well,” said Capt. Matt McKinney, William Tell chief of posting scores. “But, you have to keep in mind that some other teams don’t have as many scores posted yet,” he said, so it is still really anyone’s ball game.

A little more than 7,000 points separate the leaders in the Top Team category, but the fact that the Pacific Air Forces team does not have any scores logged in Profile I makes a huge difference. The total points available for Profile I is 12,000; AETC received 10,775. The U.S. Air Forces in Europe team is currently in second place, but all the teams are too close to call at this point.

“There’s a chance for PACAF to pull this together,” Captain McKinney said. “They scored low on Profile V, but they could definitely come back from that.”

The PACAF team is also awaiting posting on their Loadeo team, which is the weapons loaders scores for a static load and a live load. All the other teams have their static load scores posted.

Another contender for Top Gun is Air Combat Command’s Capt. Jonathan Gration. Captain Gration has logged 3,212.5 points so far and trails Captain Ertmer only on Profile I, where Captain Ertmer obtained 2,250 points after his wingman was taken out by an aggressor. In the other two profiles flown by both pilots -- Profile II and Profile V -- Captain Gration beat Captain Ertmer on II and tied him on V.

“Three kills in Profile I gave Ertmer a huge advantage,” Captain McKinney said. “But Gration has a possibility.”

Actually, with the scores being between 0 and 3,000 points, almost everyone flying still has a chance. The scores from Profile IV, the banner gun mission, are being masked until the William Tell awards banquet Nov. 19. That one profile has a possibility of 4,000 points. Also, 2,500 possible maintenance points are being masked -- just to ensure the winners’ names remain a secret until the banquet.

As far as protests go, there are some. It is up to the judges to determine if a protest is legitimate or not, and they have spoken with one voice.

“So far no scores have been overturned by a review panel,” said 2nd Lt. Craig LaBrecque, William Tell master score keeper. “If a protest is found to not have any merit, then the teams can actually be docked points.”

That has only happened once during this competition though. When people protest scores, they should keep in mind that many events are being documented by the William Tell video information documentation team.

“There are no ‘instant replays’ per se, but judges can review the tape if they choose to,” Lieutenant LaBrecque said.

Regardless of instant replays, protests and point spreads, William Tell leaders suggest that it all be taken with a grain of salt.

“Teams should bring their best game every time, for every event, until the end of the competition,” said Lt. Col. Ed Nagler, William Tell director. “Some teams have been able to accomplish more flying, so it skews the scores posted on the leaders’ board.”

Although AETC Airmen have the luxury of going home and sleeping in their own beds at night, they do not have the luxury of riding this one out.

“It’s still very much anybody’s game,” Captain McKinney said. “Whoever brings their best, and brings it more consistently, will walk away with the big trophy.”