U.S. Air Force Summits Everest with Interesting Philosophy

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FrankZappa

Trad climber
Hankster's crew
May 22, 2013 - 02:46pm PT
Oh I get the waste. I spent 6 years in the military and got to see it first-hand.
I feel a little traumatized myself; maybe I could get the military to finance my next climbing trip?
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
May 22, 2013 - 02:49pm PT
Always have, always will..


Fukkin' AAAA


TGT

Social climber
So Cal
May 22, 2013 - 02:58pm PT
No taxpayer funds involved.



The USAF 7 Summits Challenge is an independent Air Force team whose vision since its creation in 2005 has been to reach seven famed summits and plant the American and Air Force flags. They climb to promote camaraderie and espirit de corps among Airmen, highlight personal fitness and growth and honor friends and colleagues who have died in the line of service since 9/11.

The group also supports the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that provides full scholarship grants as well as educational and family counseling to the surviving children of special operations personnel who have died. The organization also provides financial assistance to those severely wounded and their families.

"My primary motivation was the foundation," said Merrin. "Climbing Everest has become a great way to support them as well as the team."



http://www.schriever.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123332639

http://www.usaf7summits.com/blog/sponsors/

*Note: the USAF 7 Summits Challenge is not officially sponsored by the US Department of Defense or the US Air Force. It is a team of military members acting unofficially, and with no DoD financial assistance, to spread goodwill about the US Air Force.





FrankZappa

Trad climber
Hankster's crew
May 22, 2013 - 03:37pm PT
^^^ OK, then WOO HOO!

(....but I still detest the military.)
Elcapinyoazz

Social climber
Joshua Tree
May 22, 2013 - 03:45pm PT
Interesting thing to me, this isn't really being publicized very heavily within the Air Force (don't ask, I have a way of knowing these things). It got a small writeup on the AF news site:

"5/22/2013 - MOUNT EVEREST CAMP 2, Nepal -- A group of Airmen with the Air Force Seven Summits team reached the highest point of the world, Mount Everest (29,035 ft.) just after 5 a.m. local time May 19.

The success marks the first time a team of military members from any nation has reached the highest point on all seven continents: Mount Elbrus Europe; Mount Kilimanjaro Africa; Mount Aconcagua South America; Mount McKinley North America; Mount Vinson Antarctica; Mount Kosciuszko Australia and Mount Everest Asia.

The team included:

•Maj. Rob Marshall, a CV-22 Osprey acceptance pilot from Mercer Island, Wash., currently stationed at Bell Helicopter in Amarillo, Texas.
•Capt. Andrew Ackles, a TH-1N instructor pilot from Ashland, Ore., and stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala.
•Capt. Marshall Klitzke, a KC-135R pilot from Lemmon, S.D., currently an instructor pilot at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
•Capt. Colin Merrin, a GPS satellite operations mission commander from Santee, Calif., stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
•Capt. Kyle Martin, a T-38/F-16 pilot from Manhattan, Kan., currently stationed at Langley AFB, Va.
•Staff Sgt. Nick Gibson, a reserve pararescueman and physician-assistant student from Gulf Breeze, Fla., stationed at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.
"Fifty years after the first American boots stood on top of the world, the first American military team has followed in those footsteps," said retired Col. Rob Suminsby, who has regularly posted updates about the team's progress on their blog at www.usaf7summits.com. "The team unfurled the stars and stripes and the Air Force flag on the summit right after 5 a.m. in Nepal."

Though unable to make the journey themselves, Suminsby and Maj. Mark Uberuaga, co-founder of the Seven Summits project, supported the team at home by keeping the blog updated and relaying key messages to friends and family members of the team.

"We were all on this journey with them. The day they took off for the summit we received 12,000 hits to the website." Uberuaga said. "(Chief of Staff) Gen. (Mark) Welsh himself commented on one of the blogs a couple days prior to the summit attempt. The team knew the entire Air Force was rooting for them. I know they carried that with them to the top."

In a blog update posted May 22, the team recounted the physical toll of the climb.

"Rob is still battling a bad chest infection and hacking cough, and many on the team have sunburn, bloodshot eyes and cracked or bleeding toes," according to the blog. "As Rob put it, 'The mountain put up a good fight.' Everyone made an effort to pack on some pounds before this trip, and most have lost 11 to 17 percent of their body weight -- 40 pounds in Kyle Martin's case."

The Seven Summits Challenge began eight years ago when Wrath 11, an Air Force Special Operations Command MC-130H 'Talon II' crashed in Albania in March, 2005.

"Rob and I had been planning a climb of Mount Elbrus in Russia, which is the highest point in Europe, before the crash," Uberuaga said. "We decided to dedicate the climb to our fallen friends. It was something we could do to honor them and it helped us deal with the loss."

As the planning continued, Marshall and Uberuaga decided to launch an effort to climb all of the seven summits to raise funds and awareness for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that provides full scholarship grants, as well as educational and family counseling, to the surviving children of special operations personnel who lose their lives in operational or training missions.

Two of the climbers, Capt. Colin Merrin and Staff Sgt Nick Gibson, turned back before the summit due to illness and concerns over frostbite.

"These guys deserve a huge amount of credit, as they made one of the toughest decisions a climber can make, turning around short of the summit," Suminsby said. "Both made a good decision to turn back. The team was committed to safety throughout the process, and their actions are shining examples of how to do the right thing even when it's disappointing and not easy. A lot of people have been willing to sacrifice fingers or toes to reach the summit, but this team defined success from the outset as bringing everyone back in one piece."

A secondary mission for the team was promoting the Air Force's vision of risk management, on or off duty. All members of the team were trained in Risk Management and used the principles in their day jobs and while mountaineering.

"The Air Force Safety Center has been a strong supporter of this effort," Suminsby said. "They recognized early on that this is an opportunity to promote a risk management mindset in all Airmen."
goatboy smellz

climber
Nederland-GulfBreeze
May 22, 2013 - 03:53pm PT
It's good to see the AF upping their game no matter how antiquated the goal might be. When I worked S&R at Barr Camp on Pike's peak they would have teams from the Academy hike up in the summer FULLY loaded down with the most bassackward gear I've ever seen, full on external frames castiron pots and pans plus snowshoes that looked like leftovers from the 10th division.
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
May 22, 2013 - 04:02pm PT
When I worked S&E at Barr Camp on Pike's peak they would have teams from the Academy hike up in the summer FULLY loaded down with the most bassackward gear I've ever seen, full on external frames castiron pots and pans plus snowshoes that looked like leftovers from the 10th division.

As it should be. How fast would you like our money to hit every single guy in the service with the kind of gear we want SEALS and PJ's to have?
pyro

Big Wall climber
Calabasas
May 22, 2013 - 05:22pm PT
go Chair-force!

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
May 22, 2013 - 05:38pm PT
I'm surprised the AF boys flew in or out of Lukla. That's kind of a short
strip for those guys! I bet they wuz wubbin their wabbit feets! ;-)
goatboy smellz

climber
Nederland-GulfBreeze
May 22, 2013 - 05:58pm PT
Survival, I didn't mean that in a negative way, I was thoroughly impressed with their badassery in hauling all that old gear up the mountain.
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
May 22, 2013 - 06:51pm PT
Gotcha.

OLD GEAR ROOLZZ!!!
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
May 22, 2013 - 07:30pm PT
Did not mean any disrespect with my little history lesson. just pointing out that even though our WWll involvement was as just of a cause as there will ever be it was still ugly.
canyoncat

Social climber
SoCal
May 22, 2013 - 09:52pm PT
My kid is Special Ops flight crew in a C130. Go Air Force!!! And to the as#@&%es who think he should be ashamed of being in the Air Force, go f*#k yourself.
Stewart Johnson

climber
lake forest
May 22, 2013 - 09:58pm PT
One minute yer saying Everest should be somehow "fixed"
and the next yer congradulating a team that relied on the system
that you say is broken.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
May 22, 2013 - 10:34pm PT
Canyoncat, my kid is a C130 instructor (loadmaster)

Small world.
Ken M

Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
May 22, 2013 - 10:56pm PT
I'm a little puzzled.

It is not clear at all, to me, that these guys are what would be called traditional mountaineers. More like Dick Bass.

And yet, despite them being that, all the accolades? Don't get that.

Second point, I am quite positive that other military teams have summitted. I believe Krakauer even wrote about that in "Into Thin Air".
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
Topic Author's Reply - May 22, 2013 - 11:11pm PT
The British and the Indians have had successful military teams but I don't know about the U.S. Of course it is the same as with the Olympics, other countries fund their athletes (with tax dollars and are happy to do so) while we make them raise money privately. I think that' why we have fewer military teams climbing.
TGT

Social climber
So Cal
May 22, 2013 - 11:16pm PT
It is not clear at all, to me, that these guys are what would be called traditional mountaineers. More like Dick Bass.

That's one of the more idiotic statements, (on several levels)I've seen in a while.

What's a "traditional" mountaineer anyway?
Hawkeye

climber
State of Mine
May 22, 2013 - 11:28pm PT
What's a "traditional" mountaineer anyway?

prolly one that wants to get to the top versus failing part way up and wanting to down play the lack of a summit and naming it as a route anyway.
BuddhaStalin

climber
Truckee, CA
May 23, 2013 - 05:19am PT
If they wanted an honorable war to harken back to, I'd pick WWII. What the USAF does now is drop bombs on people in the thirld world.

Go f*#k yourself with a frozen, uneducated turd. You don't have the slightest idea what the USAF does, and if you did, you would thank them. So goddamn sick of people thinking they know what they're talking about bashing the military. War is hell, yet part of human nature and civilization...like it or hate it, its true and it is what it is. Be thankful for the people who are out biting the proverbial bullet so we, and stupid f*#ks like yourself, can have our freedom and our way of life. Sick of people belittling and trash talking the military as a knee-jerk.

Big thanks to all of our troops, officers, airmen, and seamen et al for doing the service for all. We couldn't live the lives we live without them.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have war or need a military at all, but the world is an imperfect place, it is what it is. I'd like to think that we do more good than harm. A lot goes on in the military of all branches that we don't know about, not just bad, plenty of good.

That said, rant over, big ups to the USAF team. Nitpicking of details not necessary.

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