YPG's Organization Day features fun in the sun

YUMA PROVING GROUND - While cramming as many people as possible into a Humvee wasn't a test the base was hired to conduct, that's what some staff and employees found themselves doing Thursday morning.

The event, called the "Humvee load," was just one of 16 activities held as part of a daylong Organization Day celebration at the installation's Cox Field on the Main Administrative Area.

Although Organization Day is an annual custom at many Army installations, it hadn't been held for many years at YPG. Base commander Col. John Bullington decided to start holding it again this year after a 12-year recess.

"It's an opportunity for people to meet each other on a casual basis as friends as opposed to co-workers," Bullington said. "It also gives people a break from the hard work they do, especially since we are looking forward to another hard year of testing,"

Teresa Luna, administrative assistant to the command sergeant major, who helped organize the event, added: "We wanted to get people together to just hang out and enjoy each other's company. Let them meet people from other departments that they normally wouldn't get to meet because of how large the base is."

Bullington said other installations he has been assigned to have held the event, which celebrates workers and their families of the bases military community. He thinks it has a lot of positive benefits such as camaraderie and moral building.

"Once people get to know each other, they trust one another and work better together," Bullington said. "I have found the places that have had it function better."

Organization Day was filled with athletic competitions, games, contests, food and entertainment, including a disc jockey for the entire day.

In order to allow as many of the base's employees and staff to participate, a significant amount of the workload was stopped for the day. YPG spokesman Chuck Wullenjohn added, however, that some important tests were still taking place and a considerable amount of employees still had to work.

"The workload at YPG is to test equipment for use overseas and to save American lives," Wullenjohn said. "It's not something that can stop completely. It still needs to go on."

Laughter and fun were the dominant themes throughout the day. Although the competition was taken seriously, it never overshadowed the day's true purpose.

The day kicked off at 7 a.m. with the commander's two-mile run/walk event, which featured a semi-military style formation singing cadence and a 12-minute pace.

Other events throughout the day included a Humvee push, horseshoes, volleyball, bowling, 3-on-3 basketball, flag football, softball, dominoes, Texas Hold-em and a dunk tank.

The dunk tank provided some of the morning’s more comical moments with a base employee's young daughter dunking Bullington three out of her five throws.

"We thought of events that were fun and easy that everyone could participate in," Luna said. "Also since we are a testing facility, we wanted to incorporate some of our equipment."

Four teams competed in the events, each with their goal being to win the coveted Commander's Cup trophy. It went to the team with the most combined points at the end of the day.

"In anticipation, I have already engraved the trophy with the Team Bullington logo as the winner as I've been told that there is not much competition on the other teams," Bullington jokingly wrote earlier in an e-mail sent out basewide as a reminder of the event.

The teams were divided up by the areas in which they worked: Team Bullington, which consisted of members of the command staff; Team Washington, members of the Yuma Test Center commanded by the team's namesake, Lt. Col. Gail Washington; Team Coleman, the garrison staff and their contractors; and Team Fargason, which is the base's largest contractor.

Team Washington won the Humvee load event with a combined score of 51, having crammed 28 people into the Humvee on their first attempt and 23 on their second attempt.

When all the points had been counted, Team Fargason came away with the Commander's Cup Trophy.