Air Force to honor AFSOC with Air Power Legacy Series in 2024

8/13/2024

Any Place. Any Time. Anywhere

The Air Force Special Operations Command Motto .

Air Force to honor AFSOC with Air Power Legacy Series in 2024

The Air Force football team will honor Air Force Special Operations Command with the 2024 edition of the Air Power Legacy Series uniform. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is always ready to answer our nation’s call and provide forces for worldwide deployment. The Falcons will wear the special uniform for the Navy game scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 5, in Falcon Stadium and broadcasted on CBS.

The uniform combination has a number of key elements highlighting areas of the AFSOC mission. The helmet features the official emblem of AFSOC. The back bumper of the helmet highlights AFSOC’s motto, “Any Place, Any Time, Anywhere.” A sticker on the back of the helmet highlights the Air Force Special Tactics logo with a lightning bolt, green feet, and dagger, representing the “First there, that others may live” community. The front bumper of the helmet features the Special Tactics Combat Control motto “First There.” The jersey name plate on the right chest features each player’s name. The right sleeve is adorned with an American flag, while the left showcases one of three different badges representative of Air Force Special Tactics. The red swoosh on the jersey and pants, along with the red outline in the numbers, are a tip of the cap to the scarlet beret worn by Special Tactics Combat Controllers. On the back of the jersey will be AFSOC in the traditional nameplate. The pants will feature a dagger, a symbol of special operations, on the left leg and the Special Tactics Combat Control motto “First There” on the right leg.

Air Force Special Operations Command, headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida, is the special operations component of the United States Air Force. AFSOC is also the service’s component to United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a unified combatant command located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. AFSOC provides all Air Force Special Operations Forces (SOF) for worldwide deployment and assignment to regional unified combatant commands.

With a rich 30-year history, AFSOC boasts a legacy of Air Commandos who have excelled in missions globally. Air Commandos epitomize resilience, leadership, and teamwork. They are known to push boundaries, embodying the ethos that humans are more important than hardware. Fueled by a warrior spirit and tenacity, they drive towards innovative solutions, serving as community leaders and unit pillars.

Special Tactics is the Air Force's special operations ground force, using airpower to solve ground problems anytime, anywhere. Their missions include precision strike, global access, personnel recovery and battlefield surgery. They operate as independent Special Tactics teams and embed with joint SOF partners including the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces and Marine Raiders.

Special Tactics is the Air Force’s most decorated community since Vietnam with one Medal of Honor recipient and hundreds of Air Force Crosses, Silver Stars, Bronze Star Medals, and Purple Hearts. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Air Force Special Tactics has been involved in almost every major combat operation and enabled global humanitarian aid missions. Notably, they have had 21 operators killed in action since 2000, three of which were Air Force Academy graduates.

Special Tactics Career Fields

Special Tactics Officer:

Air Force Special Operations Command’s Special Tactics Airmen are highly-skilled operators trained and equipped to operate under difficult conditions with stealth, speed, and teamwork.

Combat Controller:

The mission of a combat controller is to deploy, undetected, into combat and hostile environments to establish assault zones or airfields, while simultaneously conducting air traffic control, fire support, command and control, direct action, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, humanitarian assistance and special reconnaissance in the joint arena.

Special Reconnaissance:

Special Reconnaissance Airmen are highly trained commandos with unique training to conduct multi-domain reconnaissance and surveillance across the spectrum of conflict with a focus on lethal and non-lethal air-to-ground integration of air power.

Air Power Legacy Series History

The Air Power Legacy Series began in the 2016 season with the football team wearing an alternate uniform to celebrate the Tiger Shark teeth nose-art which has been represented on multiple Air Force aircraft dating back to World War II. The helmets worn for the game featured a shark-teeth design like those painted on the aircraft.

While 2016 focused on the past, the Falcons honored the present, and future, of air power in 2017 with the F-35 theme. The F-35 completed its first flight in 2006. In 2012, the F-35 program increased to 30 aircraft. In 2016, the F-35A was declared combat ready by Gen. Hawk Carlisle, class of 1978, the commander of the Air Combat Command. The helmet had five different designs. On one side of every helmet will be the familiar Air Force logo often seen on aircraft, which includes the length-wise bars intersecting the roundel. On the other side was a decal representing one of the five Air Force F-35-A operational fighter squadrons in the Air Force.

The team honored the AC-130 in 2018. The helmet featured the AC-130 on one side, plus squadron patches on the other. The AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of anti-ground oriented weapons that are integrated with sophisticated sensors, navigation, and fire-control systems. Unlike other military fixed-wing aircraft, the AC-130 relies on visual targeting. Because its large profile and low operating altitudes (around 7,000 ft) make it an easy target, it usually flies close air support missions at night.

Air Force honored the C-17, a large military transport in 2019. The C-17 commonly performs tactical and strategic airlift missions, transporting troops and cargo throughout the world; additional roles include medical evacuation and airdrop duties. The C-17 is designed to operate from runways as short as 3,500 ft (1,100 m) and as narrow as 90 ft (27 m).

The Falcons honored the Tuskegee Airmen with the 2020 edition. The uniform was gray with black lettering. The chrome base gray helmet featured the P-51 aircraft flown by the Tuskegee Airmen in combat with signature red tails and nose that helped identify the group. The helmet featured the four squadron emblems for the 99th, 100th, 301st and 302nd fighter squadrons. The pants featured an authentic stenciled information graphic on the side. The custom nameplate on the jersey said Red Tails, inspired by hand-lettered names painted on the side of the P-51 aircraft.

The 2021 edition honored the B-52 Stratofortress. The helmet was designed after the B-52 that flew in Operation Linebacker II. The Strategic Air Command adorned the right check of the uniform while the name plate used the orange outline with airport codes for Anderson AFB, U Tapo and the 7th Bomber Wing patch to represent all former B-52 unites. The left pant leg featured 11 B-52 plane silhouettes representing the 11 days of bombing during the conflict. The right side pant leg had the tail flash of the plane and the number on each player’s pant leg matches their uniform number for the first time in the history of the series.

The 2022 edition honored the Space Force, which the U.S. Air Force Academy sends about 100 graduates to each year. The helmet featured the lightning bolt with a shared image between the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, representing dominance, quick strike and precision. The jersey featured U.S. Space Force base patches on the left shoulder and a tonal United States flag on the right sleeve. The unit patches feature Space Base Delta 1 headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base and Space Base Delta 2 headquartered at Buckley Space Force Bases. The pants had a pair of blue vertical stripes with USSF down the middle in gray.

In 2023, Air Force honored the Doolittle Raiders, who were 80 pilots and crew of the 16 B-25B Mitchell bombers who launched the Doolittle Raid, April 18, 1942. Led by Army Air Force Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, the Raiders bombed selected targets in the Japanese capital of Tokyo and other military locations on the Japanese homeland.