Alan C. Mack

So I'm like, all right, we got to go back.

So we turn around to go back into the top of this mountain and

And the controls stopped moving.

I can't move any of the controls.

So I always give the example of your car when you still had a key in the ignition.

If you pull the key out, you can't move the steering wheel.

No hydraulics, no move controls.

So I'm like, guys, I'm sorry, we're done.

I can't do anything.

So for a minute there, it's very surreal.

I'm kind of looking up at the stars.

I look down and I can see the battle down below me.

The 101st is down there fighting the Taliban.

And I can see tracer fire going back and forth.

And it's kind of cool thinking this is my last view.

And then all of a sudden the controls work again.

So one of the crew chiefs in the back had a can of hydraulic fluid, which is not much bigger than this glass, and he's pouring it into a fill module, which is meant to top it off, not to service it.

And he's got this little handle, and he's pumping it feverishly, and he's getting hydraulic fluid back into the system.

Now I can fly.

And I'm like, all right, here we go.