Nellis Range officer receives Air Combat Command award

Dick Benoit

Thursday, April 25, 2002 | 8:45 a.m.

Air Combat Command has picked a range manager from Nellis Air Force Base as its Range Professional of the Year for the fifth straight year. This year it's Maj. Bob Vomela, a special projects officer for the 98th Range Wing.

He was selected because his work will shape the nature of fighter training for the Air Force for years to come, according to Nellis Range official Lt. Col. Wendel Takenaka.

Vomela was the co-author of the "Nevada Test and Training Range Roadmap," which consolidates test and training range requirements for Air Combat Command, Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center into a single document, Takenaka said.

Col. Bill Percival, commander of the 98th Range Wing, also noted Vomela's "uncanny ability to find solutions that work for warfighters, engineers and contractors."

Lights, camera, rescue

A Nevada Army Guard Chinook helicopter crew was returning to Reno from a Paramount Pictures movie shoot in Wendover recently when they were contacted by the Elko Sheriff's Department to help find two missing youths near Jackpot.

According to Sheriff Neil Harris, the children, a 14-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, were returning from a skiing trip with their mother's friend when their vehicle became stuck in a snowdrift. The friend, Jim Young of Idaho, decided to walk out for help, but when he returned the children were gone. According to the sheriff's report, they had left a note on the windshield saying they had waited until 5 p.m., then decided to walk toward Jackpot.

"We just happened to be there," said Chief Warrant Officer Harry Martin, the pilot. "We found the kids and flew them to an ambulance that was waiting at the Jackpot airport. From making movies to search and rescue, all in a day's work."

The helicopter, part of the Nevada Guard's 140th aviation unit, was one of several military aircraft being used in on-location shooting for "The Core," a science fiction thriller based on the discovery that an unknown force has caused the earth's inner core to stop rotating

In brief

Arias is the son of Blanca and Jacobs Arias of Las Vegas.