908th conducts BDR Rodeo

  • Published
  • By Bradley J. Clark
  • 908th Airlift Wing
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  The 908th Airlift Wing conducted a Basic Deployment Readiness Rodeo at Maxwell Air Force Base March 4.

The BDR rodeo was designed to prepare and equip more than 100 wing members for pending deployments.

“Approximately 150 Airmen participated in the BDR rodeo,” said Master Sgt. Dwayne Curtis, project lead for the event and member of the 908th Logistics Readiness Squadron.

An event of this magnitude takes some time and consideration to pull off.

“I went to Dobbins [Air Force Base] in May 2016 to watch how they conducted their event,” recalls Curtis. “The preparation really started then, with a stronger focus beginning about September, October time frame.”

Witnessing another base perform an event like this gave Curtis some ideas to make 908th’s BDR rodeo smoother.

“Most things like this everyone has to sign in on a piece of paper and then organizers have to keep track of those rosters and then manually input them into which ever systems they need to be in,” explained Curtis. “When I was at Dobbins I noticed that they had a system in place that allowed participants to swipe their common access card and then it went automatically into whatever digital systems they needed to be tracked in, so of course we used that instead of sign in rosters.”

Another thing needed to make the event successful is assistance.

“While most of the briefers and instructors were members of the 908th, our host unit, the 42nd Air Base Wing provided some Airmen and contractors to help with the rodeo,” said Curtis.

Just like when Curtis went to another base to witness their event, this one had visitors from other units for the same purpose.

“We had people from Air Force Reserve Command Headquarters and from 22nd Air Force here, along with someone from Keesler Air Force Base to see how they should do theirs later this year,” explained Curtis.

It was clear to Curtis which parts of the event the participants enjoyed the most.

“You could tell everyone loved the afternoon sessions because they were hands on learning events,” said Curtis. “Now I just need to figure out a way to improve the briefings and make them more interactive.”

Curtis understands why holding these rodeos are vital to mission success.

“It helps the unit out,” said Curtis. “Instead of scheduling 150 individual classes, we got everyone done in one day, which saves the wing a lot of time and money.”

Of course, an event of the magnitude is going to have some roadblocks.

“I think the hardest part was getting everyone to agree to how we were going to accomplish this,” said Curtis. “We weren’t always on the same page because there isn’t a standard in how an event like this should be done. We just know the requirements that need to be completed to accomplish the mission.”

And while some might think different opinions and views could be a bad thing, according the Curtis it helped bring ideas to the table and craft a solid plan.

“Eventually everyone came together,” said Curtis. “At the end of the planning phase when it was time to execute the actual rodeo everything went smoothly and was a success.”