Alan C. Mack

We each had a little snort, and... So set the scene.

So we've done a couple of missions into Afghanistan, and...

Really, you know, I talked about the environment being one of the most dangerous parts of flying.

You know, we're flying into the mountains of northern Afghanistan.

This is now post... Post 9-11.

And we're flying using equipment that we've never been allowed to use for real.

You know, you could train with it, but you couldn't go in the mountains in the clouds.

And it was Donald Rumsfeld that actually called us and said, you know, you will get those teams in tonight, period.

And that's a whole story on its own, but...

So we get through these first two, three missions, and each of them was by the skin of our teeth.

Both the other flight lead and me took the aircraft right to its limit.

I mean, they were up at 22,000 feet.

You're on oxygen.

The doors are open because you've got miniguns hanging out.

Yeah, the wind sucks.

coming off the mountains, a lot of turbulence.

But we came back and both of us had near misses on all the missions where we just didn't think our luck was gonna hold out.

And we sat in the back room there with a little shot of Jack,

And I didn't remember who initiated the conversation, but it was like, hey, what do you think?

It's like, I think we're going to die in the next mission or two.