U.S. Air Force defends cyberspace in Entertainment Liaison Video pitch

This is the U.S. Air Force's pitch to the entertainment industry, a smorgasbord of mil-porn to delight anyone who loved shows such as Airwolf and The A-Team. The objective is to help productions, from teen-magnet Hollywood epics to seniors' detective show "Monk", get the details right—and, of course, to put the taxpayers' latest hardware on show.

Hitherto available only in teaser form online, the full-size version was yielded by a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Government Attic.

"The industry's gateway to an extraordinary arsenal of aircraft, equipment, credible personnel and locations," intones Fake Morgan Freeman. "Their mission: protect and project the Air Force and entertainment media, including film, tv, video games, comic books and more."

The Air Force's Entertainment Liaison Office offers uniformed extras, on-set technical advice, research trips and even script feedback. Michael Bay totally has his own personalized tankard under the bar at this place.

• [Palomino]

  When I saw Aliens for the first time, I wanted to join the Space Marines. The attention to detail within that element made me think actual Space Marines were hired to fill those roles.  Now I know why. 

• [retepslluerb]

  Guys, not cool.   Next time, please use a NSFW tag, if you post porn. Now I’ll have to surf to bild.de and playboy.com to counteract suspicion that I’m into icky stuff.  

• [Noctilucent Studios]

  Sucks that all that awesomness serves up so much Death.

• [smallteam]

  The U.S. Air Force: Freeing The Shit Out Of Hollywood!

• [Dan Hibiki]

  Wait…. comic books?

  Can I hire the Airforce to draw comic books?

• [bcsizemo]

  I’m assuming studios are paying for the use of these military services?  I suppose there are mock F18′s and such, but it’s not like the government/military wouldn’t mind getting some cash for just having them sitting around.

  I always thought similar things happen when you see police or fire personal in movies…

• [evanplus]

  This was actually a recurring plot point in Stargate: SG1.

  Stargate Command was a secret Air Force initiative which sent teams through wormholes for exploration and recon. To establish plausible deniability, the in-universe Air Force sponsored an in-universe show called Wormhole X-treme!, about a fictional Air Force team that sent teams through wormholes. Col. O’Neill, from the “real” Stargate Command, went to the Wormhole X-Treme set to act as an Air Force Entertainment Liason Officer.

  Stargate: SG1 of course benefited from the REAL Air Force Entertainment Liason Office, I think they even had a bunch of Air Force Generals playing essentially themselves in an episode once.

  • [twency]

    Wormhole X-treme! was one of my favorite SG-1 episodes.  It was a masterful affectionate self-parody.  (Or was it‽)

  • [novium]

    And I think I heard that they sometimes used members of the air force as extras. Must have been kind of a fun if random thing to happen while working for the military.

• [spocko]

  Your tax dollars at work!

  Of course that access to all that hardware and people comes with strings. Script approval. You want that authenticity? Cut out things that are critical of the MIC.

  I have warm feelings for the Air Force because that’s where my Stargate buddies work! Sam! Jack! General Hammen! Their strategy works. When Stargate wanted to show a bad side they put it off to business contractors and shadowy factions. It’s nice to think that the whole, ” how can we weaponize this?”

  • [Jardine]

    General Hammen? I assume you mean Hammond.

    About half the writers for SG-1 were Canadians. I don’t remember a whole lot of “rah, rah, the US Air Force is always right!” stuff going on. Jack pretty much constantly mocked the higher-ups.

    Colonel Kennedy and Colonel Maybourne (recurring villains) were both part of the Air Force (though they were also part of a shadowy faction). One of the early episodes had an Air Force Captain declare himself to be God to the inhabitants of a planet, then work them to death.

    In the second season, the Air Force decides they need a type of metal found on another world so badly that they decide they’re going to mine it with or without the permission of the natives.

    Most of the time when there’s an argument over doing something the military way or Daniel Jackson’s way, Daniel turns out to be right.

  • [Promethean Sky]

     I’m a total whore for anything Stargate, so the USAF is going to catch a little love for making the awesomeness happen. Or specifically the liaison office, I don’t think they’ve ever killed anyone in a bullshit war, but I could be wrong.

• [Deidzoeb]

  The Air Force advises science fiction, then advertises “It’s not science fiction. It’s what we do every day.” Which appears to be false advertising, because the commercials show science fictional transforming planes and futurishtic helmet displays.

  • [penguinchris]

     Yeah, I don’t really understand the point of those ads. It would be great if they showed off their coolest technology – stuff which exists but that most people don’t realize actually exists – and then used that tag line.

    But to show stuff which clearly is fictional, and then claim it isn’t, is just bizarre.

    • [Deidzoeb]

      Maybe they were watching Titanic, the scene where Rose says, “I’ll never let you go, Jack. I promise” — as she is prying his frozen fingers off the edge and literally letting him go. And they thought, hey, let’s make a commercial where we say “It’s not science fiction” but what we’re showing is literally science fiction.

• [Cowicide]

  There’s big money in brainwashing Americans into feeding the voracious military-industrial complex of their own lives and money.

  Money.  It’s WHY WE FIGHT.

  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682