Alan C. Mack

So running into the mountain, the weather, you know, that kind of stuff, because there's no weather reporting out there.

So you're kind of making an educated guess based on the overhead assets and stuff.

But, you know, they are penetrating some pretty hefty enemy air defense, you know, because I think the Blackhawks, the Air Force Blackhawks were shot at the day before with man pads, heat-seeking missiles.

Well, I was thinking about this this morning, actually.

You were?

I was.

Every aircraft, special operations aircraft in particular, have countermeasures, right, for...

So every weapon that's out there designed to take down an aircraft has what's called a probable kill ratio or a PK.

So let's say a man pad is fired at you, blue sky background, no terrain between you and the thing, and no countermeasures.

It probably has a probable kill of like 99%.

Oh, geez.

Right?

So you add countermeasures like flares or lasers or any of that stuff that they're using nowadays.

Yeah.

And the probable kill ratio drops to like 20%.

And then if you add technique and tactics to it, you might get it down to, you know, 1% or no percent.

Plenty of times.

Ah, funny.

But I did have two... In 2001, I had two MANPADS fired at me on the single day.

I was flying General Frank's into the embassy in Kabul when we took it back over in December of 2001.