Air National Guard "Rise To The Challenge" Tour To Travel Continental United States To Let Public Participate In Simulated Real-life Missions

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Air National Guard, a reserve component of the United States Air Force, is proud to announce the return of its "Rise to the Challenge" Tour.  This skills-driven experience provides the general public an opportunity to participate in simulated missions designed to demonstrate the real-life roles of Air Guard men and women.  The mobile tour will travel state to state through September.

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The traveling interactive experience, which debuted in 2010 and educates Americans on the Air Guard's role in serving local communities and our nation, features a new component this year:  the "Grateful States" initiative.  "Grateful States" lets participants record a personal video thank you message for those men and women of the Air National Guard currently serving our country at home and abroad.  The tour encourages participants to conclude their experience by entering a video booth to record a personal message of thanks.

About the "Rise to the Challenge" Tour

The "Rise to the Challenge" Tour features a series of five separate interactive challenges; each designed to highlight a skill associated with an Air Guard career field.  Through these gaming challenges, visitors can learn more about the role of the Air National Guard, as well as identify opportunities that will help them achieve their educational and career goals.  The challenges are housed in a touring vehicle built to simulate the interior of a cargo plane, and are designed to test a player's electronic, mechanical, observational and spatial aptitudes.  Challenges include refueling a B-2 Spirit bomber mid-air, repairing a mock jet engine, honing surveillance skills, demonstrating physical strength and testing medical knowledge. In order to accommodate as many participants as possible per event, double gaming stations are featured on the tour.

In the spirit of competition, everyone who finishes all five challenges can retrieve their total overall score by swiping their tour badge with an Air Guard recruiter before leaving the event site.  The names and scores of the leading challenge performers will be featured on an on-site leader board, and the tour's leading high scorer will remain featured on the leader board throughout the tour's duration.

The 2012 "Rise to the Challenge" Tour will be featured at festivals, air shows, taste, music and sports events across the nation, and participation in the tour is free.  The Air National Guard invites you to "Rise to the Challenge" by joining them onsite to try your hand at the numerous activities.  Visit GoANG.com/events to find an event near you, or "like" our page at facebook.com/AirNationalGuard.

Participants can also continue their Air Guard experience online by visiting GoANG.com/games, where they can play the Reconnaissance Challenge and additional levels of the Augmented Reality Refueling Challenge. Additionally, Air Guard's mobile gaming application, Air Taptics, which challenges users to test their reaction time, their logic and their mental agility, can be downloaded for free at the Apple and Google Play stores on mobile platforms including, iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch® and Android™ devices.

About the "Grateful States" Initiative

The "Grateful States" initiative represents the evolution of a nationwide movement to convey thanks to those currently serving our nation.  Consistently throughout the previous two years of the "Rise to the Challenge" Tour community stops, the general public has been compelled to write personal messages of support and thanks on banners that have then been shared with Air National Guard units stationed at home and abroad.   Now, through the audio and video capabilities of the tour's thank you booth, individuals can add a face and a voice to their words of gratitude.

In addition to the video booth embedded on the tour, "Grateful States" includes virtual assets that enable people who cannot visit the "Rise to the Challenge" Tour to contribute, view, share and monitor the state-by-state momentum of the year-long initiative.

All video messages created in the tour's thank you booth will be featured on the "Grateful States" website, GoANG.com/GratefulStates. At this mobile-friendly website, visitors can view compilation videos, search for their video message and share it across their own social media networks. Additionally, people can use the video recording technology featured on the site to record and upload their personal message.

A Facebook application showcases submitted thank you messages state by state, and its leader board tallies the total number of grateful messages submitted per state.  By clicking on a three-dimensional graphic of the United States, users can access state-specific video viewing galleries.  Additionally, this Facebook application, Apps.Facebook.com/ANGGratefulStates, enables people to add a video, photo or text message of gratitude.  Via Twitter people can also join the movement by using the hashtag, #ANGGratefulStates.

"It's a privilege for the Air National Guard and sister-services to be on the receiving end of the 'Grateful States' initiative. We have been honored by the traditional way visitors to the Air National Guard 'Rise to the Challenge' Tour have conveyed their thanks.  They write on banners, sign their names and pen meaningful messages," said Master Sergeant Andrew Stearns, Air National Guard Program Manager for the "Rise to the Challenge" project.  "This integrated, multi-media approach will make an already compelling gesture more powerful, and it provides a contemporary and unified method for people to literally put into words what they've been putting on paper."

(More information about the "Grateful States" initiative can be found below in the "Related Documents" section.)

Media Contacts:
Jenny Kelly-Cogdal
Marketing Werks
(312) 784-1684
[email protected]

Master Sergeant Andrew Stearns
Event Marketing Non-Commissioned Officer
Air National Guard, National Guard Bureau
(240) 612-9174
[email protected]

SOURCE Air National Guard