"Marco Leon" wrote:

Described as "A new squadron to handle AFSOC's growing mission of
flying small, civilian-style aircraft to carry special operations
troops without attracting the attention that a C-130 does. "

So we can be flying a "warbird" and not even know it!

However, talk about bursting a pilot's bubble: "After your rigorous
three million-dollar flight training starting from the Air Force
Academy, we've got your assignment--the Cessna 172!"

I have a feeling that in this case, "small civilian-style aircraft" are
things more like Lears, King Airs, Caravans, Citations, and maybe small
turboprop airliners like Beech 1900s, Saab 340, Dash 6,7,8 etc... Of
course the military already operates many of these types, but not in
civilian markings (except for those controversial Gulfstreams & 757s
shuttling to & from places in Europe & the Middle East). Most of the
media would regard a DC-9 as a small civilian style aircraft so I take
these anouncements with a grain of salt.

I find it hard to believe that anything smaller than a Cessna 206 would
be useful to the military for transporting special ops personnel &
equipment.

Eric