Air Force'Spares' No One At Bowling Championship
BY
SCOTT VANIER
Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek
"Aim High."
This is the slogan of the United States Air Force. Having recently won the 2001 Armed Forces Bowling Championship at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, their slogan could be: "Aim Well."
Forty-eight bowlers from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines came to Little Creek to claim bragging rights as best bowlers in the military. Categories included men’s and women’s team, doubles, mixed doubles and singles.
Although each branch had a turn in taking home a 1st place trophy, it was the Air Force who ran away with best overall score. Their team of 12 knocked down a total of 62,361 pins to win the championship. A distant 2nd place went to Army with 59,688 pins; the Navy was not far behind with 59,280 and the Marines took 4th after toppling 57,672 pins.
Each service had their moment of glory in the tournament. The Navy won 1st place in the men’s team category. The Army won their 1st place trophy in the men’s doubles competition while the Air Force women took 1st in their respective category. In the mixed doubles division, it was all Air Force: 1st, 2nd and 3rd places went to the keglers.
Not to be left out, the Marines had their fist around a 1st place trophy after winning the men’s singles competition.
The goal of the service team bowlers is to qualify for the armed forces bowling team; a conglomerate of the top four men and four women from the armed forces championship. The armed forces team will compete in a national bowling tournament Dec. 9-15 at Reno, Nev., against the best amateur bowlers in the nation.
Representing the men’s armed forces team 2001 are Air Force Staff Sgt. Ricky Beck of with Air Combat Command in Rapid City, S.D.; Air Force Staff Sgt. Donnie Benson, attached to Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Air Force Tech Sgt. Paul Aldrich, Peterson Air Force Base, Peterson, Colo; and Marine Master Sgt. Glenn Helm from Quantico, Va.
Making up the women’s armed forces team are Air Force Master Sgt. Christine Dash of Holloman AFB, Holloman, N.M.; Air Force Senior Airman LaRonda Dixon of Lackland AFB, Lackland, Texas; Army Master Sgt. Susan Paschal of the 8th US Army, Yongsan, Korea and Marine Gunnery Sgt. Lisa Beeksma of 29 Palms, Calif.
Perhaps the brightest highlight this year was coordinating the armed forces bowling championship with a Professional Bowler’s Association (PBA) tour stop. Dubbed "Battle at Little Creek," the week-long mega event brought to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek the best bowlers in the military and country.
"There’s a lot of advantages to combining an armed forces championship with a large national event like a PBA event," said Rob Hansgen, Armed Forces Sports Development, Marketing and Media Relations coordinator. "Only positive things have happened this week at Little Creek. The competition has been very good for the Armed Forces members. We’ve had three perfect games, which is the most we’ve ever had at an Armed Forces Bowling Championship."
Those three perfect games were bowled by Air Force Staff Sgt. Donnie Benson, attached to Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Air Force Staff Sgt. Ricky Beck with Air Combat Command in Rapid City, S.D.; and Army Staff Sgt. John Philibert with the 187th Ordnance Battalion stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C.
The concept of bringing together a PBA tournament and an Armed Forces Bowling Championships a first for each organization -- was conceived by Gary Beck, president of Killer "B" Promotions.
"We started talking to people about the concept of running these two events side by side," said Beck. "We believe there is some synergy to be gained by having the two combined."
Beck could not have been more right: three Armed Forces bowlers threw perfect games.
"Being part of a PBA tournament definitely motivated us to do our best," said Navy bowler EN3 Todd Dillard, attached to Assault Craft Unit 4 aboard Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek. Dillard finished the tournament with a 231.67 average, the best on the Navy team of 12.
"It was a great experience to be invited into an armed forces championship, but then to add professional athletes in the made it so much better," Dillard continued. " It made the competition more intense. It was definitely a success. The bowling alley put on a great tournament."