AMC's 1999 Combat Tactics Award winners

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- Air Mobility Command recently announced the 1999 AMC Combat Tactics Award winners:

Combat Tactician Airlift Officer of the Year: Maj. Christopher L. Birge, 437th Operations Support Squadron, Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. He initiated and led efforts which reduced airdrop malfunctions from 17 percent to less than one percent, fielded a new computer mission-planning system, the Portable Flight Planning System, and refined C-17A dirt field landing procedures.

Combat Tactician Tanker Officer of the Year: Maj. Christopher M. Line, 22nd OSS, McConnell AFB, Kan. He led the charge to stand up squadron operations in Germany by launching the first operational sortie of Operation Allied Force 40 hours after arrival. His low-fast departure maneuver was adopted by EUCOM as the mandatory departure routing for Incirlik Air Base.

Combat Tactician Airlift NCO of the Year: Tech. Sgt. Timothy R.Wakefield, 436th OSS, Dover AFB, Del. He is recognized as the premier AMC and U.S. Army-wide subject matter expert on all C-5 tactical overt and covert airborne operations. He assisted the Army Quartermaster Corps in the creation of the extraction parachute jettison system. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).