Minot Outdoorsman Association: a new club for Minot Airmen Published May 1, 2015 By Airman 1st Class Christian Sullivan 5BW/PA MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- The Minot Outdoorsman Association is a club for all Airmen stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota and their mission is to introduce Airmen to North Dakota's outdoor sports by closing the gap between knowledge, experience and resources. MOA is a new club founded by Senior Airman Houston Williams, 5th Maintenance Squadron crew chief, and Airman 1st Class Javier Ortiz, 5th Bomb Wing Judge Advocate, military justice paralegal, to help get Airmen off base and experience North Dakota. Both Williams and Ortiz agree that they started the MOA with a common interest of the outdoors and wanting to introduce Airmen that may not know what North Dakota has to offer outside the gates. Ortiz said when he went through the first term Airmen class he felt like they didn't go over enough of what there was to do in the outdoors. He wanted to get more information out to the new Airmen. Though the association is up and coming, both Williams and Ortiz have plans to help members get the experience and learn the skills needed for some outdoor sports through hunting and fishing trips in the future. "That's something we've got in the works," Williams said. "We'll find events that members would like to do and we'll try and pursue those." Unlike some clubs and associations on base, this is not just for first term Airmen but for anyone on Minot AFB interested in learning more about the outdoors. "We have three target audiences, new Airmen to the Air Force, new Airmen to the base and new Airmen to the outdoors," Williams said. Even though the MOA can be looked at as a group that could hurt the environment, MOA president Williams feels strongly about also teaching preservation of the land as well as using its resources. "We're out there to be stewards of the land," Williams said. "The only thing we leave behind is footprints and memories." The MOA holds meetings twice a month on Wednesdays at the Cyber Café in the Dakota Inn Dining Facility on base from 5-7 p.m.