Durant - The Night Stalkers

Table of Contents

A revealing portrait of the human face of war.

Durants experience is one of the most harrowing in the history of the American military, and one of the most compelling ever told.

Mark Bowden, New York Times bestselling author of Black Hawk Down

The author does not pull any punches.... His story, In the Company of Heroes, is one of great bravery, of going to hell and making it back alive.

This book is about far more than one battle. It is about the kind of men and women who serve our nationthe kind of Americans who understand the price that has been paid for our freedom and liberties, and the resolve and sacrifice that are required to maintain them for the future. This is a must read.

General Carl Stiner, U.S. Army (ret.)

Ive read In the Company of Heroes and I think its stunning. Its my objective opinion that Army helicopter pilots, especially Warrant Officer pilots, are some of the best and bravest pilots who ever flew, and this book proves it.

Robert Mason, former CW2 U.S. Army helicopter pilot, Vietnam, and author of the national bestseller Chickenhawk

There may, somewhere out there, be better books written by real soldiers. But no one can ever have produced a more honest one than In the Company of Heroes.

CWO Mike Durants heroism should be read by every American. His riveting story epitomizes the courage and leadership of the members of our military forces, and the sacrifices they make for all of usand the terrible impact these sacrifices have on their families. I was thrilled and moved by this book.

Ross Perot

Hats off to Mike Durants gripping first-person account of his Somalian combat and captivity. He never lost hope, and like his Night Stalker comrades, this Black Hawk Down pilot never quit. His inspiring true story should be required reading for all Special Operators, and anyone who wants to understand this breed of courageous, devoted warrior.

Major John Plaster, U.S. Army Special Forces (ret.), author of SOG: The Secret Wars of Americas Commandos in Vietnam

In the Company of Heroes is the heroic narrative of a brave and selfless soldier performing his duties the only way he knew howwith honor and respect for his country. This is a significant account of men at war, but more important, it is a personal account of duties performed in combat, of personal courage and an unbreakable will to survive. Mike Durants story, told so well in these pages, is a must read for those who send troops to fight, those who lead them, and first and foremost, those who, like Durant, take the fight to the enemy.

General Gordon R. Sullivan, U.S. Army (ret.)

In the Company of Heroes

Many thanks to Al Zuckerman at Writers House, Mark Chait and all the staff at Putnam/New American Library for their assistance in making this project a reality. They recognized, as did we, the significance of these incredible stories of courage and sacrifice that otherwise would have remained untold.

There are scores of people who helped in the research, interviews, preparation, and completion of this book. Many will be found within these pages, while others participated in critical ways, yet due to time and space constraints, their stories must wait until a later date to be fully told. Several senior officers who serve in critical positions within the Department of Defense encouraged the publication of this work without seeking credit. We are grateful to all, and ask the indulgence of anyone whose contributions to the success of this project, and more importantly to the defense of this great Nation, remain inadvertently unmentioned.

Maj. Arlo Hurst, 160th RS5; Kim Laudano, 160th Public Affairs Officer; Kelly Tyler, 160th Public Affairs Officer; Carol Darby Jones, USASOC Public Affairs Officer; Walt Sokalski, USASOC Public Affairs Officer; Charles H. Briscoe, Ph.D., USASOC History Office; MW4 (ret.) Carl Brown; Col. (ret.) Randy Cochran; Col. (ret.) Ben Couch; BG (ret.) John the Coach Dailey; CW5 Terry Frabott; MG (ret.) Lou Hennies; CW5 (ret.) Randy Jones; Kurt Muse; SSG Doug Wonacott; BG (ret.) Howard Yellen.

Like most things in life, this effort could not have been accomplished without the support of our families. We are forever indebted to them for their love, patience, courage, and understanding.

And, finally, to those whove served in this great organization. The incredible accomplishments and the contributions made by so few have helped provide stability and freedom for so many.

IN THE DEEPEST DARKNESS, at some hour between midnight and dawn, you believe you hear them coming.

At first it is merely a pulse, a disturbance in the ether, and as your ears prick up and you tilt your head to listen, a gust of wind obscures it, and for a moment you return to illusion. You are safe. They could not possibly reach you here, so far away, so high, so hidden. They may want your life for the things you have done in the name of your cause, but it will not happen here in this impregnable place. Your heart rate slows again. You smile thinly at your own fears. You nod slowly, and then you suddenly freeze as the sound returns. It is unmistakable now. Helicopters.

Long before they are upon you, which will happen very swiftly now, you see them in your minds eye. Their black armored bodies gleam beneath the starlight, their engines thunder, their sharp blades dice the clouds to ribbons. Behind their soulless eyes you can see their pilots, their hard-set jaws, centurion-like helmets and the glowing tubes of their mechanical eyes. From the gills of those charging sharks, charcoal-colored gun barrels bristle. From their open flanks, the boots of many warriors whip in the wind. Their weapons gleam.

You can barely breathe now. Nothing you do to deter them will matter. They will still come. You can flee, but they will find you.

They own the night....

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, on an October dawn at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, a new battle flag was unfurled. The pennant featured a starless night and a full yellow moon, the background to a white-winged Pegasus ridden by a grim reaper wielding a sword. Below the image in blazing red letters were the embroidered words Night Stalkers, and above, Death Waits in the Dark. The United States Armys first Special Operations Aviation element was born.

It would not be the first time that American helicopter pilots would volunteer for dangerous duty. Although rotary wing aircraft had been in existence only since the end of World War II, they had already flocked above the battlefields of Korea and had been so ubiquitously used in Vietnam that that conflict had become known as the Helicopter War. Yet the Night Stalkers mission would be something new, an endeavor previously untested. While conventional aviation units would still rule the daylight, only the 160th would crave the darkness. If a target was too far, the weather forbidding, the enemy skilled and cruel and the mission seemingly impossible, they would fly it. The men who rode with them would be only the very elite of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the successes or failures they endured together would probably never be told. They would pay dearly for their courage, and when they died, very few would know where, or how, or why.