Airmen cleared to land at new center

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Angela Shepherd
  • 1st SOW Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  Junior enlisted Airmen at Hurlburt Field now have a new place to crash. The Landing Zone, the base's new hangout, designed exclusively for senior airmen and below, celebrated its grand opening March 15.

Boasting several high tech features any Airmen these days would love to have, the Landing Zone is meant to give Airmen a safe place to gather with friends or just somewhere to go to get away from the dorms.

"We started this project to give our Airmen a place to call their own," said Sharon Brewer, chief of the 1st Special Operations Services Squadron's family member programs flight which is in charge of the program. "We hope to capture their recreational needs and interests."

The Landing Zone features a movie theater room, music rooms, a gaming room, pool tables, eight big screen televisions with cable and satellite service, WI-FI Internet and computers. The center also offers daily, weekly and monthly special events to give the Airmen as many options as possible.

One example of that is the planned showing of the Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fight May 5.
"I think this is a good way to bring a lot of the Airmen together," said Airman 1st Class Sonya Vasquez, 1st Special Operations Mission Support Squadron. "I definitely plan to come back here and use the center in the future."

The center is available to anyone in the ranks of E-1 through E-4, and each Airman can bring up to two guests that are at least 18 years old.
The center itself is open Sunday through Thursday from 4-10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. And just in case the Airmen and their guests get hungry, Velocity Subs, which is in the same building, has extended their hours to include Sunday through Thursday from 4-8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 4-10 p.m.

"We anticipate the center to be an overwhelming success and have a positive effect on our junior enlisted Airmen," Mrs. Brewer said.