Gig Harbor native Jared McGilliard is the producer of a new six-part TV series, "Inside Combat Rescue," that will premiere Monday night on the National Geographic Channel at 10 p.m. The series follows the work of Air Force pararescuemen on dangerous missions in Afghanistan.
McGilliard graduated from Gig Harbor High School in 1998, with no plans to go into filmmaking. His travels and college experiences led him toward film production, however, and he's worked on a number of TV series in the past several years, including "Ice Road Truckers" and "American Loggers."
"The great thing about this job [is] I find myself in environments that I have no right to be in," McGilliard told the Gateway. He had never been to a war zone, and was surprised by the violence he saw in Afghanistan.
“I had done a bunch of shows in some dangerous environments, but never anything like this,” he said. “I was jumping in as green as could be.”
Read more from McGilliard in this week's Gateway, out on Wednesday.
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