NO COMPETITION (PERSIAN GULF WAR)

18TH TFW - KADENA AB, JAPAN (PACAF)

178TH FS - HECTOR IAP , N.D. (ANG)

TEAM CANADA

NO COMPETITION (SEE STORY BELOW)

The stress of intramural competition, such as seen in this photo from 1994's William Tell meet at Tyndall AFB, has led officials to give the pilots a breather for a year or so. 

Pilot stress cited in decision to curtail competitions

Citing a recent study of its active duty pilots and the stress they endure, the U.S. Air Force will cancel all of its major flying competitions for the rest of 1997 and into 1998. That includes the William Tell, the bi-annual U.S. Air Force Air-to-Air Weapons Meet held at Tyndall Air Force Base. Maj. Frank Smolinsky, a spokesman for the Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base near Norfolk, Va., said the decision came after Air Force brass found their pilots were experiencing a large amount of stress caused by the competitions.

  "All of this was done for operations tempo, "Smolinsky said. In May, Gen. Dick Hawley, commander of Air Combat Command, personally visited all the flying units within his command to find out what problems were facing the men and women under his command, as well as to find out what they felt needed to be done to "fix the service."  Smolinsky said the results of that meeting caused the general, and others, to put together 55 initiatives that will "reduce the operations tempo and increase the quality of life and reduce the stress across the service as a whole."  

One of those initiatives was to "adjust" the competition schedule for the rest of the year.  The first competition to be moved back was Gun Smoke, an air-to-ground gunnery competition held at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Originally slated for this year, it got pushed back to 1998. "As a result of Gun Smoke being rescheduled, the William Tell competition for 1998 will be moved to the summer of 1999," Smolinsky said. The cutback in competition isn't expected to hamper pilots' proficiency. "We don't believe it will affect their proficiency and ability to do their job," he said. "In fact, a lot of the pilots probably would have liked to have seen some of the competitions going on, but with the operations tempo being what it has been, they're just glad to have a break and spend a little more time at home station."