Staff Sgt. Justin O’Brien, 7th Special Operations Squadron special mission aviator, mans the .50-caliber GAU-21 heavy machine gun of a CV-22 Osprey while departing Slunj Range, Croatia, Jan. 30, 2017. In the front of the CV-22, SMAs focus on standard flight engineer duties, where the role of the SMA on the tail falls more in line with both loadmaster and aerial gunner duties.

---

Size: 1731px × 1155px
Photo credit: © Chuck Little / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 352, 352d, afsoc, air, america, archive, armed, army, aviator, cv-22, defence, force, forces, military, mission, nato, navy, operations, osrpey, reportage, service, serviceman, servicemen, soceur, soldier, sow, special, states, united, usa, wing