Columbus AFB takes second place in C3 competition

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Charles Dickens
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The Air Education and Training Command C3 (Cost Conscious Culture) King of the Hill competition ended Aug. 12 with the winner being the 81st Training Wing, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

Columbus AFB came in second place during the hard-fought bracket-style competition overall and third place for voter participation with 86.58 percent. The 14th Flying Training Wing won five consecutive matches in the "normal" bracket; more than any other organization in the competition.

"I am proud of the recognition our 14th Civil Engineer Squadron team earned throughout AETC for their innovative and cost-conscious solution to a difficult problem," said Col. Jim Sears, 14th Flying Training Wing Commander.

During the sixth round, the 81st TRW (who was knocked into the "Loser's Bracket" in round four after being defeated by the 502nd Air Base Wing, Joint-Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas) faced-off against the 14th FTW in the final round of the double-elimination competition and won the sixth and seventh rounds.

"As Columbus cruised to the final round without a single loss, Keesler had to win three days in a row in the 'loser's bracket' just to make it to the final match," said Capt. Kurt Schmidbauer, AETC command financial analyst. "From that point Keesler defeated Columbus twice in a row to claim the championship."

Overall, more than 15,500 people from 22 different organizations across AETC participated in the C3 King of the Hill competition. There were two Airmen who voted every day during the two-month-long tournament. The 80th Flying Training Wing, Sheppard AFB, Texas had the highest amount of participation during the event capping off at 100 percent. Thomas Wade, 71st Force Support Squadron at Vance AFB predicted the winning idea 29 times out of the 43 matches and was named the individual participation winner.

"In the end, we met the goal of spreading the C3 message," said Schmidbauer. "We received 106 ideas through the game link, compared to 14 during the entire quarter prior to the game, and received 210 comments on existing ideas."

This competition helped to raise awareness of the C3 mindset and helped to motivate Airmen to improve their savings across AETC.

"The King of the Hill competition was a great opportunity, not only for Team BLAZE to come together and support our Engineers and their incredible C3 initiative, but also to see what ideas other wings in AETC are implementing," said Chief Master Sgt. Vance Kondon, 14th FTW Command Chief. "Hopefully this has inspired our Airmen to do more innovative thinking as we continue our C3 efforts throughout Columbus AFB."

The 14th Flying Training Wing's submitted idea for the C3 competition was the changes and solutions that were made to decrease airflow and increase energy efficiency in the paint booth. The innovative solutions created for the paint booth saves over $125,000 per year in energy and operations and maintenance, reducing energy consumption by 50 percent and maintenance painting backlog by 75 percent.

"My thanks go out to all of Team BLAZE who helped carry our team to the finals," said Sears. "It is a testament to what it means to be the premier pilot training wing and community."