The 3rd Rendition of the Special Air Warfare Symposium took place from 27-29 FEB 2024 in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. This is part one of a two-part write up about the event. Thank you to everyone who joined us!
Welcome–from Global SOF President and CEO, Stu Bradin
This is the 3rd Annual Special Airfare Symposium (SAWS) and you will not find a better event to meet current and future SOF aviation leaders.
Everywhere in the world, nations are preparing for large conventional fights that have a low probability of occurring. Most of the conflicts worldwide consist of surrogate forces from major powers or terrorist organizations that are extremely active as nations atrophy from 2+ decades of combat.
Irregular Warfare is becoming the standard, and dictatorial belligerents are using new technologies and unconventional capabilities to apply massive pressure to weak democratic governments. This is not the kinder, more peaceful world that we all want.
SOF, Cyber, Intelligence, and Information Operations are being asked to do more, not less– units doing this work have an operational tempo that is still extremely high. Recruiting, budget and personnel cuts, combined with declining demographics, are forcing nations to make changes… something they are historically not good at.
For example, for years many nations have “deferred” developing their SOF aviation. Sure, there are great briefings on how their conventional aviation units support SOF, but in the end it is not dedicated SOF aviation that supports and trains regularly to the needed level. That is all changing.
SAWS is a large, annual, global SOF Aviation gathering. The event brings together the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army SOF Aviation commands in an environment that allows them to meet with industry, academia, and international partners to talk about their vision and relationships. I know there are a lot of events competing for your limited time, but SAWS is unique and it offers a great opportunity to be with the best.
INFIL to Ft. Walton Beach
SAWS takes place in Ft. Walton Beach, FL, a beautiful waterfront segment of the Florida panhandle. The white sand beaches are a fantastic benefit of the location, but the real draw for our community is that it’s home to the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, better known as AFSOC.
AFSOC and Global SOF jointly host SAWS, although we do quickly have to mention that co-sponsorship of this event does not imply endorsement of GSOF, its services, or products by the United States Government, the Department of Defense, or AFSOC. However, we can say that AFSOC has been a fantastic planning partner and we do truly appreciate their support.
Our Global SOF team began to converge on the target on the Sunday before the event, arriving by plane, vehicle, and of course, U-Haul. There was an exciting change in the piloting of said U-Haul this year. After two years of dedication to the SAWS U-Haul Mission, Chelsea and Kate formerly turned the reins over to Trevor Burnett, GSOF’s Sales Manager, and Jason Garo, one of our amazing Partner Relations Managers. Oh the perks and benefits of hitting your one-year anniversary with GSOF!
Trevor and Jason had an amazing first ride and got all of our equipment and supplies to the event in record time!
Our team spent Monday getting the venue, the Destin-Ft. Walton Beach Convention Center, ready for the event to kick off on Tuesday!
But many of our attendees spent Monday differently. New this year, our partners at The Honor Foundation hosted a “Swing for SOF” Golf Tournament at the Kelly Plantation Golf Club in Destin, FL.
By all accounts, the 20+ participating teams had an excellent time and they’re looking to expand to even more teams for next year. This is a fantastic opportunity for SAWS attendees to golf for a good cause and kick off SAWS on the greens, so if you missed this year, take notes for next year now!
The Many WHYs of SAWS
The first day of SAWS, and many other GSOF events, takes a unique focus on Military and Government attendees before opening sessions up to our full breadth of industry and non-profit participants.
One part of that is The Honor Foundation’s Transition Seminar, which is specifically designed for SOF and SOF enablers leaving Active Duty service within the next two years. This full day seminar focuses on finding your “Why,” providing guidance on the importance of meaningful careers after SOF Active Duty service ends.
Around 50 people participated in the THF session this year, gaining valuable insights and tools on how to approach the kick off of civilian careers.
The Military and Government Day also takes place on Tuesday in the Conference Theater. AFSOC built an excellent agenda for the day, and nearly 300 Active Duty Military and Government attendees showed up to participate.
The Deputy Commander of AFSOC, Major General Rebecca J. Sonkiss, kicked off the professional development day with a rousing call to action.
“This symposium is an opportunity to expand our knowledge and build relationships to ensure that we are always ready to meet any challenge head on,” she said. “We encourage you to challenge conventional wisdom the next three days and embrace new ideas.”
“To defeat our adversaries, we need a new mindset and a new approach to warfare. We must be able to operate across multiple domains, seamlessly integrating air, land, sea, space and cyber.”
Maj. Gen. Sonkiss then reinforced the identity and purpose of America’s Air Commandos – that they must be able to anticipate and respond to emerging threats in real time, acknowledging the future fight is rapidly approaching – if not already upon them.
“Our readiness is our strength – our collective professional development, the knowledge we gain and relationships we build are all essential components to readiness,” said Sonkiss.
The impressive list of speakers for Military and Government-only day also included:
- Colonel Paula Grant, Staff Judge Advocate, Air Force Special Operations Command
- LTC Sean Williams, Air Commando Development Center
- CMSgt. Anthony W. Green, Command Chief, U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command
- Command Chief Master Sergeant Colin A. Fleck
- Command Chief Master Sergeant (Ret.) Greg Smith, Former Senior Enlisted Leader, USSOCOM
They discussed topics ranging from “Heritage and Reflections that Inform the Future Fight” to “Taking Care of Our Air Commandos” to “Decision Making in Warfighting.” The sessions were very interactive, with attendees asking more questions than we could get to in the allotted time during every Q&A!
The topics, speakers, and audience engagement really showed us WHY it is important to have these events and discussions.
Converging for the Welcome
While the military and government attendees were participating in the aforementioned sessions, the industry side of the house also had a busy Tuesday setting up in the Exhibit Hall.
For the first time in this event’s three year history, we had a completely SOLD OUT Exhibit Hall, including booths in every nook and cranny we could find outside of the building.
There are always many moving parts and pieces on setup days: forklifts hanging signage, last-minute shipments arriving, reunions and meetings, and of course plenty of unpacking.
We also offered our SAWS attendees another added benny–participation in Industry Matchmaking facilitated by govmates. This took place at our favorite waterfront and waterfall host hotel, The Island Resort.
Instead of matching person-to-person, govmates takes an approach of organization-to-organization, matching larger “Buyers” with smaller “Sellers” for meetings.
This year we were incredibly honored to have multiple representatives for AFSOC on board and participating with this portion of SAWS, and it sounds like there were many beneficial meetings happening over the two hours.
All of these worlds collide at the Welcome Reception for SAWS, where we invite all of our attendees, whether military, government, industry, non-profit, or academia to join us for some light bites and beverages in the sixth floor, waterfront ballroom of The Island Resort.
It can be a bit of a squeeze to get 300+ people up two elevators and into the venue, but it was well worth it when we saw so many old friends and new, catching up and laughing against the backdrop of the gulf waters.
Huge thank you to Bank of America, Welcome Reception and SOF Champion Sponsor, for supporting SAWS in such a big way!
Thanks so much to everyone who tuned in for the first part of SAWS–check back for part 2!
Options for Screening for Cancer in SOF
Mickey Wright
SAWS was another GSOF win. Thanks to your entire team.