The Immense Challenge of Flying Army Helicopters in the Desert at Night, w/ Master Aviator Alan Mack

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]So, you've you fly Chinooks Yeah. in uh Desert Storm.

[00:00:04]Right. And how did that go for you? Was there For me, it went great.

[00:00:08]Um you know, the you had Desert Shield preceding Desert Storm. So, about 6 months or so of just flying in the desert. And because I was the new guy, they flew me every day, you know, with a senior pilot. And then we flew at night and the interesting thing about me being a nightstalker eventually is that, you know, you fly at night night vision goggles. And the goggles at the time were you would wear them um kind of stuff you see in some of the older '90s movies. You know, you you great big things, you know, with surgical tubing holding them on your helmet and counterweights and Look like an alien. Yeah, it was quite a mess.

[00:00:47]But, the older guys that had flown in Vietnam and such, they did not want to fly these. You know, they would much rather fly uh what we call night hawk or unaided, right? So, just you know, what you can see out the window. And in Saudi Arabia, it's pitch black if there's any kind of cloud cover. You know, there's no cultural lighting out in the desert.

[00:01:06]>> So, you cannot fly like that with just by the eye. Right. So, they're like, "We'll send the WOJs," which is warrant officers junior, uh "to go fly." And I got good at it.

[00:01:14]You know, I mean, got a couple hundred hours flying at night in the Saudi >> with the night vision goggles on. Yeah.

[00:01:20]Whereas, the older guys didn't. So, out of 16 air crews, we had six that actually flew at night. Okay. Is it incredibly challenging? Like It can be, yeah. The The flying isn't so bad. It's the landing and takeoffs. Because you get all the dust, right? And you can't see out the window.

[00:01:35]>> Yes. No, that doesn't sound safe. You're in a place where the the word desert is in the title.

[00:01:40]>> Yeah. It is less safe than, you know, you know, being able to see out the window for sure.