Mike Durant

I think I had 800 hours.

But you haven't done a lot of multi-ship.

You don't have a ton of night vision goggle time.

Why don't you do some time in the 101st, build up that experience, and then come back?

And I'm like, all right.

So I went and did two years in the 101st, went to instructor pilot course, built a lot of multi-ship formation time, night vision goggle time, and then I went back.

And it's a pretty robust selection process and training process.

And I'm fortunate in that I'm not a great athlete.

I'm a decent scholar.

I'm not all that good looking.

I can't run all that fast, but I could fly a freaking blackhawk.

I mean, it was like it was an extension of me.

That is how it felt.

When I strapped that thing on, it's like I just felt part of it and had enough intellectual capacity

to be able to manage all the systems.

And then another part of flying that I don't think most people appreciate, certainly those kind of missions, is you have to have a perspective that is larger than just yourself.

You have to, you know, where's the ground force?

Where's the other aircraft?

Where's the threat?

Where's the weather?