WADS wins USO Northwest All American Oh-Pin bowling tournament

  • Published
  • By Capt. Kimberly Burke, Western Air Defense Sector Public Affairs

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) bowling team won the second annual USO Northwest All American Oh-Pin bowling tournament on May 24, 2016, at the Bass Pro Shop in Tacoma, Wash. The WADS team, representing the Washington National Guard, was made up of David Bauld, Elisa Layton, Michael Doing, and Chris Worden.

The local military tournament was made up of teams representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Washington National Guard.

"The teams competed for bowling supremacy and to take home the coveted USO Northwest All American Oh-Pin Cup," said Jennifer Kelly, USO event manager. "The tournament was made up of four-member teams, bowling three games each, with no handicaps and the highest total pin fall count won.”

"I was pleased to see my team won by over 100 pins," said Chris Worden, a mission systems technician at WADS. "I was concerned that I might hinder our score total because my bowling average is not stellar."

Worden explained that he was a last minute addition to the team because mission requirements did not allow for an original team member to participate. However due to his shift time at WADS, Worden had to leave before the presentation of the Golden Bowling Pin trophy.

During the tournament, the USO also held a bowl-a-thon where over $1,000 was raised to help support the Helping Hands program.

"The Helping Hands program is used to help bridge the gap in funds available to our military and their families to provide much needed unit and morale building activities such as welcome home celebrations, pre-deployment activities, family day picnics, and tickets to ball games," said Kelly.

In 2015 the USO was able to give more than $70,000 directly to local military units.

For more information about upcoming USO Northwest events, visit www.usonw.org.