The Operational Test Command held its 11th annual “Turkey Bowl,” which is actually two games, one for the women and one for the men, Dec. 16.

Department of the Army civilian employees and Army contractors joined with OTC’s green suiters to play for annual trash-talking rights and have a little fun.

The first game featured the Gridiron Maidens, with the blue team defeating the red team, 30-6, in a lopsided victory.

The teams started playing three-on-three, but ended up playing four-on-four after the rest of the players arrived. In previous years, this was termed the “Powder Puff” game. That moniker didn’t make the grade this year.

“Last year they called it ‘Powder Puff,’ but this year, since we are all sophisticated women, they changed the name to Gridiron Maidens,” Sgt. Tanya Shelton, a human resources noncommissioned officer with OTC, explained.

Besides, these women didn’t sound like powder puffs.

“We don’t like to play with the boys because they say things like ‘ouch, you scratched me’ and there’s the ever popular ‘I didn’t want to hurt you,’” Capt. Victoria Stauffer, a tasking officer with OTC, said.

After the game Shelton, the blue team’s quarterback, celebrated with a victory cry usually reserved for the most valuable player of the Super Bowl.

“I’m going to Disneyland!” she yelled.

In the second game, there was an East versus West match-up with the red (East) team defeating the blue team (West), 28-20, in a closely contested game. The West started out strong, leading most of the game, but after a couple of late interceptions, the East came back and grabbed the lead, holding on to win.

Though the game was just for fun, it was clear that these teams took things seriously.

Colonel Steve Duke, director, OTC, and a red team player, described the team’s philosophy this year.

“The difference between last year and this year is last year anybody who wanted to play, we said that they could play,” Duke said. “We had a guy that said ‘I played quarterback in eighth grade.’ Well, that was a long time ago, and we are all aging so, ‘What can you play now?’ is the question we asked this year.”

Duke summed it up, saying, “It’s always been this side of the road against that side of the road.”

Though he admittedly spent most of his time barking at the referees, with victory in hand he was satisfied and happy.

“It was a good event, professionally done and a lot of fun,” Duke said.