SCS brings home gold

Bringing home gold

Maj. Gen. William Shelton, 14th Air Force commander, presents the Space Communications team award to Staff Sgt. Tavius English and Senior Airman Daniel McCoy, 460th Space Communications Squadron members, at the Guardian Challenge 2006 awards presentation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Taylor Marr)

Published Aug. 25, 2006
By Senior Airman Jacque Lickteig
460th Space Wing Public Affairs

BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Buckley's 460th Space Communications Squadron Guardian Challenge team struck gold Aug. 17.

Staff Sgt. Tavius and Senior Airman Daniel, the duo to represent the 460th SCS, earned their squadron the title of "The Best Space Communications Team in the Air Force," a repeat win for the squadron.

"I was ecstatic," Sergeant Tavius said. "We were hoping to win but we didn't feel the rush until our names were called."

They competed against two, two-person teams from Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., and Schriever AFB, Colo., in five scenarios. They handled circuit outages, performed emergency procedures for missing communications security, spotted visit request paperwork mistakes and tested new circuits using a bit error rate test.

The evaluators tested Sergeant English and Airman Daniel here in late April or early May.

"They were very professional," evaluator Master Sgt. John Spadaro said. "They never got flustered during the scenarios."

Sergeant Tavius attributes their composure to their day-to-day training. He said their trainers and their training program is so proficient, that continuing their day to day operations was enough to prepare them for the contest.

"The 460th team was on it from the get go," Sergeant Spadaro said. "They didn't seem to miss a beat, and they worked well together as a team."