Mike Durant

I don't remember if the weather changed or we came in from a different direction, but the wind direction was not what we thought it was going to be.

And in a helicopter, if you happen to be downwind of your buddy's rotor wash, that's not a good place to be if you're trying to hover because the air is already disturbed and it already wants to suck you down, basically, if you're ingesting all of that, especially if they're higher than you and you're getting all that downflow.

Your blades can't bite, I guess is the simplest way to think about it.

So we're supposed to fast rope our seals into a tennis court.

So I come to a hover, I was flying, and I don't have enough power.

I mean, again, I don't know if it's because now we got a tailwind, we thought we'd have a headwind, but I just don't have enough power.

And there's nothing I can do except the things going to the ground, whether we like it or not.

And the crew chiefs are our eyes and ears in the back.

And they're calling me down, you know, tail right, tail left, meaning, you know, if there's something back there that I can't see, they're the ones that are guiding me around this stuff.

And I'm pretty sure we landed right on the net because the net obviously is going to squash.

And I know the operators are like, I thought we were roping.

And all of a sudden we're just elevatoring down to the ground.

But somehow the blades fit inside the fence around the tennis court.

Again, I credit the crew chiefs.

I mean, they're the ones.

I'm doing what they're telling me to do.

I can see in front, but I can't see very well to the sides and I definitely can't see the back.

And they guided me all the way down, got it on the ground, guys got out.

Now I got plenty of power because all the weight's out and we took off.

You know, again, when you think about your career in military aviation, it's those moments that, by a hair, you're still here or you could have been another name on the wall.