Rolando Gómez is an American film producer, screenwriter, freelance

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and an alumnus of the 2021

National Hispanic Media Coalition The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) civil rights organization that was founded to eliminate hate, discrimination, and racism towards the Latino community. NHMC collaborates with other social justice organizations ...

Series Scriptwriters Program and the Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Project. In 2021 he was an on-set

associate producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

for the feature films, ''I Am Gitmo'' and ''Everything Will Be Fine in the End''. and

Quora Quora () is a social question-and-answer website based in Mountain View, California. It was founded on June 25, 2009, and made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Users can collaborate by editing questions and commenting on answers that ...

honored him in 2016, 2017 and 2018 as a Top Writer.

Life and career

One of the original Lexar Media Elite Photographers, after Gómez left the active-duty U.S. Army as a staff sergeant, he joined the U.S. Air Force as a civilian and served as the Chief, Multimedia Production for the Air Force News Agency (AFNEWS), now the Air Force Public Affairs Agency (AFPAA). There he served for nine years and oversaw print, radio, and television streaming content for the Air Force official website plus other internal and external media publication and broadcast products. One product, AFLINK (Air Force Link), increased its download video and radio streams from 180,000 to almost 700,000 monthly in the first year under Gómez' supervision and was touted in an article by ''Tech Republic''. In 2004, the agency honored Gómez as the AFNEWS Senior Level Civilian Employee of the Year, worldwide. Gómez served almost nine years active-duty as a military combat photographer in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, and worked directly for the CINC

United States Southern Command The United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), located in Doral, Florida in Greater Miami, is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning, o ...

(USSOUTHCOM), Gen. George A. Joulwan, who created Operation Support Justice, in Germany at

V Corps 5th Corps, Fifth Corps, or V Corps may refer to: France * 5th Army Corps (France) * V Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * V Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Ar ...

and at USSOUTHCOM headquarters in Panama for a total of four years. The Dept. of Defense honored Gómez as one of the "Top Five" military

combat photographer War photography involves photographing armed conflict and its effects on people and places. Photographers who participate in this genre may find themselves placed in harm's way, and are sometimes killed trying to get their pictures out of the war ...

s worldwide, plus awarded him the

Defense Meritorious Service Medal The Defense Meritorious Service Medal (DMSM) is an award bestowed upon members of the United States military by the United States Department of Defense. In the order of precedence of the United States Armed Forces, it is worn between the Purple ...

for his actions on the

war on drugs The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...

in Latin America during the Pablo Escobar era where Gómez' military unit tracked Escobar, other narcos, and the

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Commun ...

guerrillas of Peru for 26-months as part of Operation Support Justice. Gómez also deployed on assignments for the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Olympics, Presidential Inauguration,

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

Operation Uphold Democracy Operation Uphold Democracy was a military intervention designed to remove the military regime installed by the 1991 Haitian coup d'état that overthrew the elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The operation was effectively authorized by t ...

in Haiti,

Operation Northern Watch Operation Northern Watch (ONW), the successor to Operation Provide Comfort, was a Combined Task Force (CTF) charged with enforcing its own no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq. Its mission began on 1 January 1997. The coalition partners ...

in Turkey and the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed H ...

and refugee crisis in Africa plus many more world events. His work has appeared in '' PARADE'' (cover story), ''

NEWSWEEK ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', ''Rangefinder'', ''D-Pixx'', ''Peterson's 4-Wheel Drive'', '' Stars and Stripes'', ''

Army Times ''Army Times'' (ISSN 0004–2595) is a newspaper published 26 times a year serving active, reserve, national guard and retired United States Army personnel and their families, providing news, information and analysis as well as community and ...

'', ''Airman'', ''Soldiers'', ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'', ''Netscape'', ''Studio Photography & Design'', ''PMA Daily'', and '' Leica World News'' plus other publications.Perkins, Michelle. Professional Portrait Posing: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers. Amherst Media, 2007. . Page 51 Gómez earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication, Electronic Media, summa cum laude (4.0 GPA), from the

University of Texas at San Antonio The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a Public university, public research university in San Antonio, Texas. With over 34,000 students across its four campuses spanning 758 acres, UTSA is the Education in San Antonio, largest universi ...

(UTSA) in 2001 and an associate degree in Business Administration from St. Philips College, San Antonio. Gomez is also a State of Texas mediator in conflict resolution. He is listed by the University of Texas, San Antonio as a “notable graduate.”

Bibliography

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References

American photographers 1962 births Living people University of Texas at San Antonio alumni {{US-photographer-stub