The U.S. Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office hosted a group of film industry leaders last week to Eielson Air Force Base and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska aboard a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the USAF's premiere strategic long-range heavy lift aircraft.

You might recognize the C-17 from the popular Marvel series 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', which used the Globemaster as the basis for its slightly modified through movie magic "S.H.I.E.L.D. Bus". Unfortunately, the interior of our aircraft was a bit more spartan.

The objective of this mission was to share the amazing assets, capabilities, and stories available to filmmakers through the Department of Defense. A diverse group of individuals invited to attend the 3 day tour. Production executives from Fox, Sony, and Warner, producers familiar with working with the DoD, and a number of writers who expressed interest in penning projects incorporating some aspect of the stories we heard.

I’ve posted a combination of my images and USAF file images of some of the assets available to us through the DoD, from the strategic airlift capabilities of the C-17, C-130, and KC-135’s, to the awesome firepower of the A-10, F-16, and F-22’s. In addition to aircraft, the Air Force also fields boots on the ground from the Forward Combat Controllers (CCT) who accompany Army and Marine units on the front lines to coordinate air support, and the Pararescuemen (PJ) who go behind enemy lines to rescue downed pilots which may prove to be subjects coming up in the near future.

Tyrese Gibson's character in Michael Bay's Transformers series is a perfect example of the positive results through cooperation between the Air Force and Hollywood. Bay gain access to USAF bases and assets for the film, while the Air Force was not only able to showcase "sophisticated USAF aircraft in the movie, we also helped develop one of the main characters - a combat controller who displays our core values of integrity, service before self and excellence in all we do." 

Lying 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle outside of Fairbanks, AK, Eielson AFB’s primary mission is in support of ‘RED FLAG’ exercises where the USAF trains fighter pilots in simulated combat situations over the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, comprising of 65,000 square miles of available airspace, 2,490 square miles of land space, with 1.5 million acres of maneuver land used by the Department of Defense to provide unmatched opportunities on land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace for present and future service, joint, interagency, and multinational training.

Further south in Anchorage, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson maintains a strategic position in their ability to deploy over the pole to 80% of the world’s economic capitals and intercept any hostile traffic approaching northern Air Defense Identification Zone. 

Home to the Alaskan NORAD Region, JBER units comprise of forces from the USAF, US Army, and Canadian Air Force that continually monitor the Northwestern approaches to the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) through remote radar stations dotting the Alaska coast, and can field the E-3 AWACS Sentry and F-22 Raptors to intercept through the JBER based Eleventh Air Force, 673th Air Base Wing, the 3rd Wing, and the 176th Wing, operating C-17 Globemasters, C-130 Hercules, and KC-135 Tankers.

For images of the trip, please visit :

Eielson Air Force Base

Photo courtesy: SSgt Shawn Nickel, 354d FW Public Affairs