Mike Durant

So at the time, the Saudis today are much more willing to sign the Abraham Accords and reach some sort of peaceful arrangement with the Israelis.

But back then, it wasn't there yet, right?

And that was the concern.

I mean, our whole freaking force is based in Saudi Arabia.

And if the Israelis get involved and this thing unravels, what the hell is going to happen?

So this becomes a major concern that these Scud missiles are, and that's why he was doing it.

He wanted to draw the Israelis into the fight.

So Delta's mission was neutralize the Scuds in Western Iraq.

And we were putting them in on the ground.

And I'm flying a DAP at this point, attack version of the Black Hawk.

The Chinooks are doing the infills because they need to bring their vehicles in.

There's too much that needs to go in for a Black Hawk to carry.

So we're escorting the Chinooks, and we did several missions.

It was cool.

I mean, we put them in.

We're in these attack helicopters, so we're orbiting, providing security, making sure there's nobody around while they offload the vehicles and get loaded up and go find their hide site.

And on one night, I have an operational SATCOM radio.

So I can talk to the jock.

These missions were long range.

We were flying long ways into Western Iraq.