Airmen brought home 87 total medals, including 23 first-place golds, during the 2015 Warrior Games at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Airmen also won 39 silver medals and 25 bronze medals. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James tweeted on Monday that she was “so proud” of Team Air Force for its showing at the games. Some 250 warrior athletes from the United States and Britain competed in events including cycling, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, archery, shooting, field events, and swimming during the games, which began on June 19 and concluded on June 28. The Army team won the most medals with 162 (69 gold, 52 silver, and 41 bronze), followed by the Marine Corps with 105 (47, 37, 21), Air Force with 87, British armed forces with 85 (42, 20, 23), US Special Operations Command with 45 (13, 17, 15), and Navy/Coast Guard with 43 (12, 12, 19). (See DOD’s Warrior Games webpage.)
The Air Force will promote 11.07 percent of eligible master sergeants to senior master sergeant this year, a decline from last cycle that snaps a four-year streak of increases. Out of a pool of 13,315 eligible individuals, 1,474 new E-8s were selected.