Team Air Force cycles across Iowa

  • Published
  • By Cynthia Bauer
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
FORT MADISON, Iowa (AFPN) --  The Team Air Force cycling team rode into town here July 27 in military formation, met by cheers, applause and chants of “Air Force, Air Force…” The event marked the end of the seven-day, 450-mile Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.

The team, comprising about 90 cyclists and two dozen support people from 27 Air Force bases began this different kind of “deployment cycle” July 20 at Glenwood, in the western part of the state.

The team camped out at six en route locations, working with Air Force Recruiting Service to promote Air Force employment opportunities. It was the ninth year the Air Force team participated in the bike ride. There were 8,500 registered riders and several thousand more unregistered riders in what officials said is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the nation.

“On the road” team director Col. Bob Norman from the Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., said the recruiting event provides the Air Force with a recruiting venue like no other.

“There’s no other event like this,” Norman said. “Where else can you take part in a ‘rolling state fair,’ and talk to people from all over the country as well as America’s heartland about the Air Force?”

Norman, a three-time veteran, as well as the other riders and support team passed out small promotional items along the way, including stickers, key chains, pins, pencils and pens. They talked to city leaders, other cyclists, local townspeople and children.

“Where else can you try to recruit Miss Iowa National Preteen and talk to city officials who are retired military in one packed week?” Norman asked.

First-time rider Brig. Gen. Pete Worden of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, Calif., said he had wanted to ride in the event for several years. He said the ride was a great recruiting event.

“The Air Force was put in a good light. We reached the 10,000-plus riders on the event, and touched at least another 100,000 people along the way,” Worden said.

He said cycling with the team was great for the riders, too.

“Not only do you get this great sense of camaraderie with the team, you get a real sense of the depth of respect and affection the people of this country have for us,” he said.

It was the fifth ride for 1st Lt. Clara Coble from Hill AFB, Utah. She said recruiting was a big part of the ride, but there was more, too.

“We get to build on the camaraderie of the Air Force team, network and connect with people from all the other Air Force base cycling teams. The Air Force is such a big family,” she said.

At Mount Pleasant, a family invited the team to spend the night in their back yard. Doris and Larry Price’s yard was filled with welcome signs and flags as the team rolled into town.

“Three years ago, the team came through Washington, (Iowa), (visiting) a retirement home my daughter works at. I said then, if the Air Force team ever came through, I’d host them here,” she said.

Her son David is an Air Force staff sergeant who talked to team leaders back in May and arranged for the team to stay with his mom and dad.

Senior Master Sgt. Iris Rowand provided a special touch at the end of the ride. She had returned from a Southwest Asia deployment a few days before the ride. She brought with her an American flag that was carried on one of the lead cycles for the military formation into Fort Madison on the final stretch of the 450-mile journey.

“I had this flag flown over Baghdad and Bagram (Air Base, Afghanistan). I brought the flag to (the ride) to lead the parade into town to honor American forces still deployed in support of operations Iraqi (Freedom) and Enduring Freedom,” she said.