Shawn Ryan Show
#148 Alan C. Mack - Flying Through Hell: Real Combat Stories from a Night Stalker Pilot
Mon, 09 Dec 2024
Alan C. Mack is a retired U.S. Army Master Aviator and veteran of over 35 years of service. He spent 17 years with the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the "Night Stalkers," flying MH-47 Chinook helicopters on missions such as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the rescue of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell during Operation Red Wings. Mack's career included roles as a Flight Lead, Instructor, and Commander at West Point, amassing over 6,700 flight hours and earning accolades like the Distinguished Flying Cross and Legion of Merit. In his book, Razor 03: A Night Stalker’s Wars, Mack shares gripping accounts of his combat experiences and personal challenges, including the toll of frequent deployments on his family. Now serving as a Deputy Commissioner of Emergency Services in New York, he continues to inspire audiences with stories of resilience and leadership. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://shopify.com/srs https://helixsleep.com/srs https://betterhelp.com/srs https://hillsdale.edu/srs https://ShawnLikesGold.com | 855-936-GOLD #goldcopartner Alan C. Mack Links: Website - https://alancmack.com Book - https://alancmack.com/razor-03-a-night-stalkers-wars X - https://x.com/alancmack2015 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/alancmack2015 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlanCMackAuthor LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-c-mack Please leave us a review on Apple & Spotify Podcasts. Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website | Patreon | TikTok | Instagram | Download Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Alan C. Mack and what is his background?
Alan Mack, welcome to the show, man.
Oh, thanks for having me.
It's my pleasure. So, first helicopter pilot on the show from Night Stalker TF-160, Man, I've been wanting to get one of you guys for a long time. And then we connected, what, about two years ago? About a year and a half. A year and a half ago. And then for whatever reason, the conversation kind of fell off. But now you're here. And, man, I'm pumped. I'm glad to be.
We've had a ton of requests for TF160th guys. So thank you for making the trip. Glad to be here. That's all I can say. But, yeah. So everybody... Starts off with an intro. So, man, you've been a part of like so much history, high profile missions in the GWOD. I just can't wait to get another perspective. We've interviewed a lot of guys that you've,
A lot of guys that have been on ops that you've been a part of and very apparent. We have a lot of mutual friends. As I got blown up, hey, you got to get this guy on the show. But I can't wait to get another perspective, and I want to dig into your training and all that stuff and get the life of a Night Stalker documented. But... Quick rundown of your intro.
You've served more than 35 years, 17 of which were served in Army Special Operations as a combat and instructor pilot. Entrusted with the United States Military Academy Flight Detachment at West Point, New York, logged more than 6,700 flying hours, 3,200 with night vision goggles. Taken part in Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and was a major factor in the Global War on Terror.
Flew MH-47s while assigned to 160th SOAR, the Army's only special operations aviation regiment. Your crew was one of the first into Afghanistan and the first into Mazar-Sharif as part of America's response to the attacks on 9-11.
Highly decorated, receiving the Legion of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Star Medals, three Meritorious Service Medals, ten Air Medals, one with Valor, Combat Action Badge, and the Army Broken Wing Award. Now you serve your local government as Deputy Commissioner of Emergency Services for Orange County, New York. You're the author of Razor 03, A Night Stalker's Wars.
And you have another book coming out, from my understanding, from when we spoke at breakfast.
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Chapter 2: What high-profile missions did Alan C. Mack participate in?
Good childhood, it sounds like.
Yeah. Yeah, it was good. What got you interested in flying? So believe it or not, the Vietnam War was going on, right? And so I must have been six, seven years old or so, and it was on the evening news, right? You didn't have the 24-hour news cycle. You had, you know, the 5 o'clock news, 10 o'clock news, or whatever it was, depending on your time zone. And they always had Hueys zipping across,
You know, the screen. And I was like, I want to do that, right? Remember the TV Guide when you were a kid?
Oh, yeah.
You had the little paper magazine, you know, what's on TV. And in it was an insert for the Army recruiting, right? So I filled it out, and I sent it in. You know, I want to be a pilot, and I must have been – I don't know, 10, maybe 11. And the recruiter sends me a handwritten letter back, a bag full of stickers and stuff like that.
And he's like, hey, look, I see by your birthday, you're not quite old enough to talk to me, but keep that thought alive and call me back when you're 18. Fast forward a number of years. I'm in high school. I'd forgotten about the Army thing. My senior year, I'm planning on following on to college in New Hampshire. And I've got a guy who's going to be a roommate, the whole thing.
And I start thinking, you know, this is in the fall of 1980. And I'm thinking... If I go to school, I'm just going to party. I'm not going to study. I wasn't a bad student, but I wasn't a good student. I just never did my homework kind of thing. I knew I should, but I didn't. And I knew that college would be the same thing. So I'm worried about what I'm going to do.
And another friend had just been to the Army recruiter. And he comes in, oh, is it the Army can do all this stuff? You can go to Germany, which was West Germany at the time. And I was like, you know... I always wanted to fly helicopters. And I saw a commercial. Remember those Be All You Can Be commercials? Oh, yeah. Well, there's like two, even three of them that helicopters are involved in.
And one of them is like a W-1. The warrant officer ranks are one through five now. And he's in a Cobra helicopter zipping around, you know, and they finish up. And the senior guy is like, not bad for a rookie, you know. And I'm like, that's what I want to do. So I go into the Army recruiter that my friend had been to. I'm like, I want to fly helicopters. And he's like, well, hold on now.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Alan C. Mack face during his service?
And I remember to this day, I use that lesson on my kids and tell them, it's like, don't get mad you didn't get the job you wanted. Don't get mad that you didn't get this or that. Things always work out. They just do. Don't give up. So you wanted a Chinook. I didn't. I was actually mad that I got it. Really? Yeah, because remember I said I wanted to be salt work, right? And I'm like, a Chinook?
That's bull. It's going to be like flying from airport to airport. That's going to suck. And the instructors, all retired warrant officers, all older guys, they slapped me in the back of the head, right? They're like, you idiot. Shut your mouth and take the slot, right? And I'm like, but I want to fly Hueys. And they're like... Hueys are going away. Trust me. Take the Chinook, right?
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So I did, you know, grudgingly. And as soon as I flew that thing, I was like, this is amazing. It's one of the fastest helicopters on the planet, let alone the U.S. Army. It's very powerful, and it's no harder to fly than a Huey. But there's a whole now conversation on that. But that's how I ended up flying Chinooks. Learned on Hueys, transitioned into CH-47 Deltas just before Desert Shield.
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