Service before self: Team Vance digs deep for Special Olympics

A costumed 1st Lt. Andrew Zwirlein, a 3rd Flying Training Squadron instructor pilot, pals around with some local kids at the 2015 Oklahoma Law Enforcement Polar Plunge in Enid, Oklahoma, Feb. 21, in support of Special Olympics Oklahoma. Vance Airmen volunteered and participated in the annual event in support of more than 10,000 athletes statewide. (U.S. Air Force photo / David Poe))

Service before self: Team Vance digs deep for Special Olympics

Published March 5, 2015
By David Poe
71st FTW Public Affairs

VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Team Vance's more than 25-year relationship with Special Olympics Oklahoma continued Feb. 21.

Runners, plungers and volunteers hit the streets and a chilly pool for the seventh annual 5K Warren Edds Memorial Fun Run/Walk and the 2015 Polar Plunge at Splash Zone, a local Enid water park. Both events supported Area 6 Cherokee Strip SOOK efforts.

Traditionally, a Polar Plunge is when donations are raised for a volunteer's leap into uncomfortably cold water. Vance and Enid plungers jumped on the same day as Tahlequah and Lawton plungers leaped in their communities. In all, there were 13 plunge locations across Oklahoma this year.

In his third year volunteering with SOOK, Capt. Curtis Holtman, a 71st Student Squadron instructor pilot, said he felt it was not a coincidence that Special Olympics is a historically popular volunteer opportunity for servicemembers and law enforcement officers. Vance has hosted the SOOK Cherokee Strip Area 6 track and field meet for the last 26 years, and the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics has raised more than $461 million since 1981.

"I think it's a part of our service nature," he said. "If you're signing up for our career fields and our lifestyles, you have it embodied in you that you want to give back. For me, it's about helping people."

Senior Airman Thomas White, a volunteer from 71st Operations Group, has been stationed at Vance for four years and said trading his Saturday for the chance to help northwest Oklahomans was an easy decision.

"Whether it was Enid Night Out or the many occasions where people wouldn't let me pay for lunch or dinner - it's the greatest to serve here," said White. "They've given to me, and I want to give back."

Col. John Menozzi, the 71st Flying Training Wing vice commander, participated in the 5K and said he enjoyed seeing how far Team Vance takes the term "selfless service."

"One of our core values in the Air Force is 'service before self' and a lot of people could stop and ask themselves what it means to them in uniform," he said. "It might mean 'I'm willing to deploy at a moment's notice and endure separation from my family' - I think it means more than that.

"I think the folks we have at Vance, especially our young Airmen, when they get out into the community and volunteer - to me that epitomizes 'service before self,'" he said. "Not only do they want to give back to their Air Force but also to the communities that they live in - they get involved."