490th Missileer to represent Air Force in Armed Forces Basketball Championship

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Dillon White
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  One former member of the Air Force Academy basketball team and current member of Air Force Global Strike Command's Team Malmstrom will leave to attend training camp from April 1 to 7 for a chance to compete in the 2011 Armed Forces Men's Basketball Championship and possibly the 2011 Conseil International du Sport Militaire Peace Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Training camp begins March 22, however, due to an upcoming Combat Capability Evaluation, 1st Lt. Matt McCraw, 490th Missile Squadron ICBM combat crew commander, will arrive April 1 so he can help his section during the evaluation here.

"I don't want to leave my squadron during this evaluation because they need me; it wouldn't be right for me to leave and play basketball while they're going through an evaluation," Lieutenant McCraw said. "It will be challenging showing up late to camp and gelling with the team, but I played with some of them in 2009 so I do have that advantage. My main focus will be adding to the chemistry they will have built and not breaking it up."

If selected to play for the All Air Force Team, Lieutenant McCraw will compete against sister services teams from April 9 to 19 at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Calif. Outstanding players from this tournament will be hand-selected to play for the All Armed Forces Team during the 2011 CISM Peace Games in Rio de Janeiro against other military teams from countries like China, South Korea and Lithuania.

In 2009, he represented the U.S. Air Force in the Armed Forces Men's Basketball Championship. The Air Force shut out the other branches 6-0 in a round-robin tournament.

He was then selected to play for the All Armed Force's Team. He represented the U.S. Military as a whole for the Armed Forces in the 49th CISM World Military Men's Basketball Championship from June 7 to 14, 2009, in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Lieutenant McCraw scored 14 points against Germany and 19 against Kazakhstan.

"My teammates were amazing, officers and enlisted," he said. "Both on the court and off the court, I had an awesome chance to mentor my enlisted teammates and discuss my role as a missileer to people from the other services, while gauging myself against the best of the best."

When asked what his experience playing in the All Armed Forces Team in 2009 was like, the missileer responded, "It was a pinnacle of my career, being able to represent the Air Force and then the United States of America. They play every team's national anthem. I was wearing an American jersey and then our National Anthem was playing -- I was representing my country -- that's what I hope to experience again this year."

The team members will also participate in community service projects and have the opportunity to interact with members of other country's militaries.

"It's surprising how many people I met from other countries spoke English, and in some cases, better than most Americans," Lieutenant McCraw said about his trip to Lithuania in 2009.

In preparation for his trip to training camp, he has been working out twice daily and is focusing on core muscles with medicine and stability balls.

"Matt is a great, fun-loving guy," said 1st Lt. Griff Hofman, 341st Operations Support Squadron instructor, "but when it comes down to working out and getting prepared for All Armed Forces, he is no joke. He is so focused when we are in the gym doing shooting workouts. When he gets in a rut or misses a few shots in a row, I just talk a little trash to him and he immediately gets angry-focused and hits 30 deep balls in a row. I definitely have never played ball with a more skilled athlete, but it is great to see how humble he is about it.

"Last Thursday when we were doing a shooting workout, there was this little 3-year-old girl running around the courts and Matt took the time to let her shoot the ball a few times and try to play defense on him. He is just such a great, all-around guy and this whole base should be proud of him and happy that he gets such a great opportunity to go represent on a world stage."

Lieutenant McCraw's workout partners are not the only ones supporting him. He identified the main reason he will be able to go on temporary duty to pursue his goal of representing the Air Force through basketball.

"The 490th [MS] has been tremendous in allowing me this opportunity, it's always great having leadership backing you up. When I was growing up, my parents and mentors told me to surround myself with good people and to use basketball - don't let basketball use me. If someone had foreshadowed all the places I would go and the opportunities I would have from playing basketball - no way. Basketball has allowed me to do a lot of things and right now I'm surrounded with great people and I'm enjoying myself."

If Lieutenant McCraw makes the Air Force team and is then selected to play for the All Armed Forces Team, he will return to spend approximately two months at Malmstrom back on alert in one of the 490th's Missile Alert Facilities before leaving to compete in the CISM Peace Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"From day one Lieutenant McCraw has been an outstanding asset to our squadron both on and off the court," said Lt. Col. Matthew Guenther, 490th MS commander. "Needless to say we have a pretty strong squadron intramural basketball team. In fact, the Farsiders just recently won the wing basketball tournament. Matt not only brings basketball talent but also serves as a leader and mentor to his fellow teammates here on base and out in the missile field."

For more information on the Armed Forces Sports, go to
http://armedforcessports.defense.gov/

For more information on the 2011 CISM Peace Games, go to
http://www.cism-milsport.org/eng/001_HOME/001_homepage.asp