After his initial exposure to drama in high school -- at the time an exercise to impress a girl - Frederic Doss attended Missouri Southern State University on an acting scholarship. When he met the woman who would become his wife, he decided that acting couldn’t guarantee a stable enough future, and he prepared for graduate school. He was waiting for classes to start when his life changed.

One mild Tuesday morning in September Doss turned on his television and was greeted by images of smoldering towers with gaping holes, and people fighting to get through the flames to safety. He watched in horror as the buildings tumbled down carrying with them so many who had not succeeded in their fight for life. Academic plans were set aside with his acting dreams. Doss walked into the Air Force recruiter’s office. He wouldn’t know it at the time, but his decision, spurred by outrage and patriotism, would lead him back to acting.

While stationed at Holloman Air Force base in Alamogordo, a senior ranking officer spoke of a film crew coming to visit. Doss remembers, “They were preparing a film called Prime Directive. I met with the film crew and…Michael Bay. I helped sell them on using the base.” This film came to be known as Transformers.

Doss worked behind the scenes to coordinate things for the production. During this process, he learned the casting agent was having difficulty filling a speaking role, so he auditioned for it. “I did one read through and she picked up the phone. Next thing I know I’m on set working with Michael Bay.”

This small role sparked a renewed interest in acting. “When it wrapped, I felt like someone had stabbed me in the chest…I thought that I was done and I’d never get to do it again.” Doss didn’t want that to happen. He decided to take a chance and, after an 8-month deployment to Afghanistan, he returned to Alamogordo to begin pursuing his dream.

From base, auditions consist of a four hour drive to Albuquerque, reading for five minutes, and making the return trip - and he must be ready to do it again if he gets called back. The process, though trying, has begun to reward him. He has landed numerous television roles and just wrapped a featured extra part in Swing Vote with Kevin Costner.

As he prepares to leave the Air Force in March 2008, he is making plans to move to Austin, Texas to be a part of the independent film scene there. Doss credits his time in the military with preparing him for the strain of being an actor. Aside from the discipline and the training to follow directions, there in one intangible that isn’t listed in the brochure.

He explains,“When you’ve sat over in the desert, and you’ve been mortared, not doing so hot in an audition really isn’t that scary any more.”