Mike Durant

So I go down there, and I'm sitting on the beach one day, and this freaking flight of Hueys goes over with the grunts in the back and their legs hanging out, low level, over the jungle.

And I'm like, why did I lose sight of that goal?

That's what I want to freaking do.

Because, I mean...

Does anyone ever hear a helicopter and not look up?

I mean, it's just, there's something magical about them, you know?

And so I said, all right, I got to get off my ass and get back to figuring out how to get to flight school.

So I applied for flight school from Panama, somehow got accepted, even though this is back in the day where you're actually putting paper in an envelope and sending it on its merry way to some black hole somewhere, you know?

in Washington, D.C., and believe it or not, I actually was advised, make a copy, because if they lose it, you know, you have to do it all over again.

I made a copy.

They lost it.

I sent the copy in and got accepted.

If I hadn't been accepted, I would have left the Army.

And it wasn't because I was really dissatisfied, but I just couldn't see myself, you know, listening to radio broadcasts in Spanish for the rest of my life, you know.

But I got accepted.

And, you know, you think about your life and where does it make these dramatic turns?

Obviously, flying with Joe initially, getting motivated to do it was a huge thing.

Yeah.

And then getting to flight school was the next one.

And I would say my mindset changed in flight school.