Base Defense Airmen featured on Nat Geo special

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Douglas Ellis
  • 23d Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  National Geographic Channel will feature Moody Airmen from the 820th Base Defense Group in its upcoming national broadcast premiere of the two-hour special, "Inside Combat Rescue: The Last Stand" on June 15, 2014 at 9 p.m EST/PST.

Following the success of last year's series, "Inside Combat Rescue," Nat Geo returned to Afghanistan in summer 2013, hoping to continue telling the Air Force story.

"I was incredibly happy with the success both domestically and internationally of Season 1," said Jared McGilliard, "Inside Combat Rescue" series producer. "The stories of Season 2 are unique stories of war that will surprise the audience and give them a gritty, authentic and honest perspective of this war that has never been seen before."

The new episode, "The Last Stand," features Airmen from the 820th Base Defense Group Moody AFB, Ga., and the 105th Base Defense Squadron Air National Guard from Stewart, N.Y, during their latest deployment where they were assigned to Reaper teams of the 755th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron.

Nat Geo documented members of Reaper Team 5 during their hunt for Subhanullah, an insurgent operating around Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

"I'm extremely proud of the mission Nat Geo captured while embedded with our Battlefield Airmen downrange," said Col. Sam Milam, 93d Air Ground Operations Wing commander. "These are highly skilled, dedicated professionals assigned to a unit like no other in the Air Force, and it's important we tell their story to the American public."

One of the Airman deployed with the film crew agreed with Milam, adding it will show an often unknown side of the Air Force mission.

"I think it is great that the 822d BDS and the Air Force will be showcased," said Staff Sgt. Pablo Cancel, 822d BDS squad leader and Reaper Team 1 navigator. "This will allow other people to see that we're not only an air-minded force. We do some ground pounding too."

The Reaper's mission was to ensure the safety and security of 36,000 people stationed at Bagram Airfield.

"Our job was to secure the perimeter around the base," said Staff Sgt. Brian Grondziowski, 822d BDS squad leader and Reaper 1 fire team leader. "We also performed key leader engagements to gather intelligence on high valued targets."

The Reaper teams gathered intelligence on the high valued target who was a notorious improvised explosives device cell maker and responsible for many attacks on Americans in Afghanistan. One of the attacks resulted in the death of four U.S. Army soldiers while they waited at a bus stop in Bagram.

"He was also directly responsible for IED attacks on a few of my friends," said Cancel. "Those attacks motivated me to take him out."

The Reapers were not the only ones focused on a goal that came with risk. The Nat Geo film crew went outside the wire with the Reapers to document their missions.

"We mounted cameras inside and outside their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and on the men themselves," said McGilliard. "We also had a minimum of one camera operator on the ground outside the wire on every mission."

The show also provides an inside look at one of the key leader engagements, where the Airmen negotiated with village leaders where their target was believed to be hiding. They tried to persuade the village leaders to stop protecting the infamous criminal.

The Nat Geo film crew not only covered the outside the wire missions of the Reapers, they filmed their personal conversations with family members back at home, showing what each member sacrifices while deployed.

"Our goal is to give the audience insight into who they are inside and outside the arena of war and the life they have at stake," said McGilliard.

With continued support from all of the armed forces, McGilliard said Nat Geo hopes to continue telling the stories of the men and women of the United States armed forces.

"As much as I was thrilled to have the support of the Air Force last year, it was an even bigger honor to be welcomed back again," said McGilliard. "I think it surprises people, in a good way, that the military fully supports this type of programming...one that does not gloss over the gains or losses of this war, but tells a full story of the success, failure, pain and good that has resulted from this war."

The entertainment industry regularly engages the U.S. Air Force for involvement in motion pictures, television and video games through the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office in Los Angeles, Calif. This office works to protect the Air Force's interests and project its missions, capabilities and Airmen through entertainment.