WEBVTT

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- My name is Staff Sergeant Kevin Gantt.

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I am the Weapons Load Crew Team Chief.

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I am from a very small
town called Azle, Texas.

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It's just outside of Fort Worth.

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We're out here doing our practice loads

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for the Air Force Global Strike Challenge.

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It's important for us to get
as much practice as we can,

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because we don't necessarily
work together all the time.

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As much time as we can
spend out here practicing,

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then we can form a better
team for when it comes time

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for the actual challenge.

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I am a Weapons Load Crew member,

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as well as every person on my team.

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Basically what that entails is

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in addition to the maintenance that we do,

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and upkeep on the
aircraft's weapon systems,

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we do load, whether that's our
inert bombs, live missions,

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air crew training missions
and stuff like that.

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So this really sets us up for
success when it comes to this.

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In addition to the regular
operations that we perform

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day in and day out,

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we also perform during exercises
or other load competitions,

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that we have pretty much in-house.

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Even this challenge is
just another stepping stone

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towards real world operations

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when we go to another base or
a forward operating location.

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So I think it's important to
showcase my crew's talents

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and their skills

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because not only does it build
morale amongst ourselves,

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we can say, "we're the best
load crew on this base,"

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but when other people
hear or see what we do,

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then it sets that tone for

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yes we can assure and
deter when we need to,

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but we can also have some fun.

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This is just a great
way for us to showcase

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that we're the best.

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We're gonna win because we're weapons,

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that's just what we do.

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Day in, day out, rain or shine,

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we're on the line all the time.

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This is just another
chance for us to showcase

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what we do, and we're gonna win.

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I'm extremely confident.

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I've worked with these
individuals more than once

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and their work ethic shows through

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in pretty much everything they do

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and I'm very confident

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that we're gonna have
a really great chance.

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- Rodney Tucker, Cleveland, Ohio.

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I'm the three-man.

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The three-man is

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with the four-man and

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what we do is

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we prep the bomb-bay,
and we prep the trailer,

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and we make sure that the munition

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we're about to load is good.

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What we're doin', is we're
getting ready for Global Strike.

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And that is to, it's a competition

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from different bases around the world

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that load nuclear weapons

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and we're just competing to
see who can load this weapon,

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safe, secure, reliable
and do it the quickest.

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So one thing we try to
preach here and harp on,

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is crew integrity.

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I've noticed, being here and
loading with different people,

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people do certain things
a little differently.

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So havin' that comfortability
and familiarity

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with the other three people
that I'll be loading with

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helps us a lot, saves us a lot of time

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and we're overall comfortable.

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One of the things I believe
is practice makes perfect.

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With that being said, practicing,

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repetition, loading this a buncha times.

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If we were ever in a situation
where we have to load this

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and fly this overseas
somewhere and stuff like that,

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I believe that with all the practice

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and training that we get, we
would be more than capable

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and comfortable and ready to
load this at any given time.

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I believe that

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the big things are important

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but we try to focus on the little things

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and payin' attention,
playing close detail.

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I mean, paying attention in close detail.

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And what that does is...

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So for me, there's a lot of
things that I wouldn't really

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catch or I really wouldn't look at

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because I would just look past it

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and, like, "oh, okay, that's good."

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Everyday out here on the flight line,

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we try to do our job
safe, secure, reliable.

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It's just the little things,

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and then that leads to the big things.

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We do the little things good,

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it'll eventually lead to
us accomplishing big things

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that we need to take care of.

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We do a lot of maintenance
tasks on the aircraft.

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Loading certain adapters, or AME,

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or this or that.

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That's what helps us to
load these munitions.

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I believe it's important
to showcase our skills.

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In regards to,

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for instance, for me,

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if somebody wants to get
something done quickly,

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or they're kinda in a situation where,

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"oh we need for you to do this right away,

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this-and-that-and-the-other,"

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and it's kinda like a high-stress thing,

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and it needs to be done
as soon as possible,

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I would want our supervision,

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I would want our officers

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to see that

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we, as a team,

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can be relied on at any
given time, any given point,

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any given day.

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I believe we're gonna kill it.

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I believe we're the best out there.

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I don't think there's anybody better.

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My team

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is really good

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and I can't wait to showcase that

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to all the people that
will be watching us.

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We're gonna win the
Global Strike Challenge

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because we practice a lot, we study,

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we focus on the little things.

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I believe we work really good together.

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So I believe we're gonna win because

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I believe we're the best out there,

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I don't think there's anybody better.

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We work really together.

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Our

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LSC here,

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our Load Standardization Crew

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and our other training crews

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that train with us have
put us in the position

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and they have the utmost confidence in us.