FAQ - Tiger Meet Of The Americas

Q: What is a TMOTA?	This stands for ‘Tiger Meet Of The Americas’. Any excuse for another acronym!
Q: So what is a Tiger Meet?	A gathering of military units that share an association with a big cat, not necessarily a Tiger, usually as part of their unit insignia or heraldry – the squadron badge. Tigers and other big cats are popular unit mascots as they represent the squadrons as fierce predators. The main objective is to integrate everyone into a multi-day flying exercise.
Q: Why have a Tiger Meet then?	Flying and cooperating with other units is an essential part of the training process for today’s military, as operations in mixed ‘coalition forces’ are becoming more prevalent. Any opportunity to organise a medium sized exercise at squadron level is valuable and the TMOTA was created as the umbrella under which units could build up ties and personal relationships with a common theme.
Q: When did the TMOTA begin?	In August 2001, the 120th FS Colorado Air National Guard were organising one of their regular Large Force Employment (LFE) exercise at their home base of Buckley AFB. Major Curt Hughes had some prior knowledge of the NATO Tiger Meet and the idea was borne to introduce a Tiger Meet to North America as a theme for their planned LFE. Maj Hughes enlisted the help of Major Mitch ‘BC’ Neff as Project Officer and the name ‘Tiger Meet Of The Americas’ was introduced and a trophy commissioned. ‘Big Cat’ units from Canada and American were invited and the exercise was a resounding success.
Q: Who is eligible to attend?	Any unit in North or South America with a big cat association could be invited, the list of units is constantly updated and the host unit will send out invites to as many units as possible. Unfortunately up to now the Latin and S. American Tiger squadrons have had to decline invites due to tight budgets but they will continue to be invited.
Q: Why a competition?	Tiger Meets introduce an added element of competition to enable all the maintenance and support personnel to play a full part in helping their team win the ‘Spirit’ Tiger trophy. The competitions range from scoring the timed arrival of the pilots, to maintenance exercises, to the ‘Tiger Games’ - a mini Olympics of team ‘sporting’ events. ‘Tiger Spirit’ is a huge part of Tiger Meets; this is represented by the overall attitude of the whole team. Are they enthusiastically taking part in the games and competitions? Are they wearing Tiger themed uniforms? Have they added Tiger markings to their jets or vehicles? All these things are taken into account and the team leaders will meet at the end of the TMOTA to vote for the teams they feel made the biggest contribution to the various elements of a Tiger Meet. The smaller trophies are based on a points score but the overall ‘Spirit Trophy’ will go to the team who showed outstanding spirit, regardless of whether they brought 100 people or 10 people.
Q: Who hosts the TMOTA?	Participating units can put themselves forward to host the following TMOTA whilst attending the current exercise. If more than one unit asks to host then there is a vote. This change came into effect in 2005, before that the overall winner also hosted the subsequent event.
Q: Is there a governing body?	No. Unlike the much larger European Tiger Meet, who have the NATO Tiger Association (NTA) overseeing their affairs, the TMOTA is a much smaller undertaking. There are however a core group of mainly Colorado ANG members who keep the continuity going and advise and update on the development of each subsequent exercise every two years. Each host unit passes on a ‘lessons learned’ book to the next host, but up to now every new project leader has had no first-hand experience of attending a Tiger Meet. This makes that core knowledge vital to preserve and develop the exercise. The NTA has no input into the running of the TMOTA.
Q: How can I attend a TMOTA?	If you are a Tiger squadron member, contact the next host unit for info on attending the TMOTA. If you are civilian, TMOTA’s are military exercises and not air shows, so public access is restricted and at the discretion of the host base. For the working media, TMOTA’s are excellent events to report on! Media days are usually organised by the host base public affairs team and they should be your first point of contact. Where possible this website should be your first port of call for public information and updates.