Hollywood comes to AFSOC
July 5th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Looks like a Decepticon to me. (Photo by Master Sgt. Russell E Cooley IV)
Start with a CV-22 Osprey. Throw in an experienced combat controller. Lots of stuff goes bang.
A JSOC mission into Pakistan? Nah. Try the latest edition of Transformers.
The folks at AFSOC helped make “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” even more action-packed than a usual Michael Bay flick. And people appear to hoover up the action; the movie opened with a $116.4 million showing over the holiday weekend.
About 50 airmen from headquarters AFSOC, the 1st Special Operations Wing and other units helped with the filming at Hurlburt Field, Fla., last September. Shooting also took place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. (Parts of the flick were also filmed on Freedom Plaza in downtown DC, but that probably only interests you if you’re assigned to that five-sided black hole on the Potomac.)
Bay’s crews were allowed to film a CV-22 in flight over the Gulf of Mexico and over the Florida panhandle. They also provided a bit of technical guidance to help develop one character, a retired chief master sergeant who was a combat controller.
How does one manage to get the Air Force — remember, folks, this is a fiscally constrained environment — to devote the time, equipment and manpower to the blockbuster hit? The Pentagon signed off on the use of a CV-22 for filming “because it offered the unique opportunity to highlight Air Force capabilities and showcase airmen to a worldwide audience,” the service’s top PR man in Hollywood said in a release.
Tags: AFSOC, air force, cv-22, edwards afb, hurlburt field, transformers
It’s what the new AFSOC commander didn’t say
June 27th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Air Force Special Operations Command has a new top officer, and in AFSOC tradition, the new guy is shrouded in a bit of mystery.
This much we do know: Lt. Gen Eric Fiel arrived at Hurlburt Field after a stint as the vice commander of U.S. Special operations Command. Previous jobs include plenty of other positions at SOCOM, the deputy gig at the Joint Special Operations Command, 58th Special Operations Wing commander and commander of Air Force Special Operations Forces.
But it’s a quote in the press release that makes us think Fiel might want to keep AFSOC’s actions in the shadows.
“Today, AFSOC ████████,” he said. “AFSOC will ██████. We will █████████████████████████████. We will ██████████████████.”
Hey, we kid. But good luck to the new guy. Folks might be talking drawdown, but things are lively as ever for the SOF guys out there.
Tags: AFSOC, air force, hurlburt field, jsoc, socom