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U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ana Merkel, a munition inspector from the 31st Munitions Squadron, conducts an inert bomb build at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Jan. 7, 2020. Merkel developed the idea for the all-female ”Bouncing Bettys” team, which won the competition.\u00a0ERICKA A. WOOLEVER\/U.S. AIR FORCE<\/em><\/p>\n Ex is still under the weather, and asked me to post up this article. One of my duties as a P-3 crewman was to be certified on loading homing torpedoes in the bomb bay, and Harpoon anti-ship missiles on the wings. Of course our crew Ordie ran the checklists and ensured compliance with established procedures so Very Bad Things didn’t happen.<\/p>\n The reason I bring this up is I know what it takes to hang things from aircraft, making sure they stay there until needed, or brought back safely if not used. It ain’t easy.<\/p>\n By NORMAN LLAMAS<\/strong> <\/p>\n AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy \u2014 They Could Do It!<\/p>\n For the first time since Aviano began hosting its quarterly bomb-building competition, an all-female team entered \u2014 and won. The team, called the Bouncing Bettys, completed the Rapid Aircraft Generation and Employment competition last week.<\/p>\n All of the Bouncing Bettys dressed as Rosie the Riveter, the World War II icon whose image appeared on posters proclaiming, \u201cWe Can Do It!\u201d The posters were used to recruit women to work in factories and shipyards to produce munitions and war supplies.<\/p>\n The RAGE competition included six evaluated events: a written test, stockpile practices, trailer configuration and re-configuration, air cargo palletization and a weapons-build, said U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa in a Facebook post congratulating the team on their win.<\/p>\n The competition is a relatively new event, first held in October.<\/p>\n The Bouncing Bettys were Staff Sgt. Ana L. Merkel, a munitions inspector; Staff Sgt. Catharyn M. Clyde, a munitions control supervisor; Staff Sgt. Nicole D. Jarvis, an NCOIC of conventional munitions support; Airman 1st Class Ashlyn B. Martin, a stockpile management technician; Airman Erin N. Brumm, a stockpile management technician, all from the 31st Munitions Squadron; and Senior Airman Audrey M. Naputi, a munitions inspector from the 731st Munitions Squadron. All are based at Aviano.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Congrats, Ladies! Read the rest of the article and view the pics here: Stars and Strpes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"