Alan C. Mack joined the Army upon graduating High School. His desire to see the world as a US Army helicopter mechanic took him to the Republic of Korea, West Texas, and the Federal Republic of Germany before attending Warrant Officer flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The nearly year-long flight school yielded a UH-1H, Huey, and CH-47D, Chinook, aircraft qualification before his first pilot assignment in Savannah, Georgia. He arrived in time to progress with his new unit as a copilot in Operation Desert Shield. Then, several months later, he flew combat missions in the lead aircraft penetrating deep into Iraq.
Upon his return to the United States, he quickly achieved the status of Pilot-in-command and eventually assumed the coveted role of Night Vision Goggle Unit Trainer. The NVG UT position is a precursor to flying as an Instructor Pilot (IP). Another assignment to the Republic of Korea was in store for Alan before attending the CH-47 Instructor Pilot course at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
The call to adventure was persuasive, drawing Alan into the special operations community as an MH-47 pilot, where he served for nearly 17 years at the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (TF-160th). He carried in the Horse Soldiers in 2001, Navy SEAL Neil Roberts fell from his helicopter when he was shot down during Operation Anaconda, he was the overall flight lead for Operation Earned Respect (the recovery of fallen from Operation Redwings, and the rescue of Marcus Luttrel), among many other missions.
CW5 Alan C. Mack is a Master Aviator with more than 6700 hours of flight time, of which over 3200 hours were flown with Night Vision Goggles.
Alan C. Mack’s awards include
• Legion of Merit
• 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses
• 3 Bronze Star Medals
• 3 Meritorious Service Medals
• 10 Air Medals; one with Valor device, Combat Action Badge, and the Army Broken Wing award.
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Andy, if you want some AC-130 guys to talk with if know a few.
This is your best pod yet Andy. Good stuff.
Really good interview man, brought back a lot of memories during anaconda days.
Another excellent podcast very informative🇺🇸🇺🇸
4k views and 345 likes? C'mon gents.
Hi, I’m a 21 year old woman and I’m training to become a US Navy SEAL. How should a woman prepare for BUD/S? How are women treated in BUD/S? Do you have any advice for preparation? I’m a civilian and I want to go enlisted.
According to what some BUD/S dropouts told me, one female SEAL candidate broke her legs in Basic Orientation (BO) which is the first two weeks of BUD/S, another female SEAL candidate broke her legs in BUD/S Prep and a third female SEAL candidate got rolled back in BO for stress fractures. None of them made it. Evan Eichler told me that one of the women he trained was medically dropped from BUD/S because she broke her ankle.
According to the SEALSWCC Scout Team, most female SEAL candidates have issues with load bearing and just don’t have enough durability. Women have weaker bones and tendons than men, studies have shown that women develop stress fractures 3x more often than men. Do you have any advice for becoming more durable?
Thanks Andy, always enjoy hearing stories from Nightstalkers.
Awesome episode !!! I want you to have a Horse soldier on. I would like to hear a podcast, rather than watching a very over exaggerated movie
Get his son on too!
Great conversation today, 2.5hrs went by fast. His book will be a nice read, great stuff gentlemen. Amazing feat to get out of that terrain alive.
I’d love to see you interview Mike Rutledge, former Navy seal turned 160th SOAR pilot, then went on to command the 2nd flight detachment at West Point.
Hey everyone have a wonderful week and stay safe
Awesome podcast as usual. I hope at some point his book will be available in an audiobook platform.
Very tough to hear Alan talk about his wife, she paid the price for her service and for his service. She deserved decent leadership when she was in the army, no one stood up for her and that makes me sick. May she Rest In Peace
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I know Alan personally. See him all the time. He’s a really great standup guy. Amazing person. Truly one of our unsung heroes.
1:44:51
"Hey Ackmed, lets go take a look and see what that noise was"
LOOOL
It’s so cool hearing the same story but from a different perspective. I’ve read a bunch of books and listens to a few podcasts about op anaconda but never from a pilots pov. Super interesting
Bad ass to see more nightstalker content. Your pod is easily in my top three
Great guest, great show Andy !
@Andy Stumpf can you get some Delta Force guys on? They're super interesting and not much is known about their day-to-day work.
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If I didn’t know who this man was beforehand I probably could have guessed that he was a pilot. They all have a very similar- calm, cool, and collected demeanor about them and they all speak in very clear, precise details.
Great interview! I look forward to reading his book.
Nice, that Andy knows what buttons to push and how to get to the perspectives we got to hear. Interesting stuff.
Did you guys and lady know that Andy collects old truck bumpers?
Just a show suggestion. You should see if you could get Rob riggle in there to interview. He was a part of the horse soldiers
This episode made me love helicopters even more. I bet it's pretty neat to do maneuvers and shit in a helicopter. Fuckin send it.
I don't know if I've said this before, but you really ought to get Jimmy Hatch on the show. Both of you have somewhat similar arcs in your respective careers so it would be interesting to hear you guys talk.
I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed listening to this. Thank you
Return to sender
“I’m scared of heights” – said the pilot
That’s an American hero! No fear of any fight! Andy great choice for an interview, you make it easy to like a podcast!
Thanks Andy!
Another great one Andy!
Keep up the hard work.
Instructor Stumpf,
Your NYT’s reporter is at it again on Ms. O’Donnel’s CBS News at 6:30pm.
Good job.
Sincerely,
R.W.N II
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
Andy you should make a "clips" channel. I really think it would broaden your audience and you could give them a clip of a really interesting part of the podcast and they would want to check out the rest.
I dont think allot of ppl watching knew who Alan Mack was, but if they saw in the title that he was apart of Roberts ridge and Redwings, allot more ppl would be interested. Im glad i clicked this by chance cause i wouldve passed on a gem and i think a lot of others dont know who exactly this man is so they passed by it as well
Another amazing episode. If you continue with TF 160 guys; I think it would be an awesome interview with Mike Rutledge (TF 160 and former Navy SEAL).
It would be awesome to have an Enlisted Crew Chief, Flight Engineer, Door Gunner (whatever the Army calls them) that was with 160'th on. As far as I know Ive never seen or heard of a podcast with an Enlisted Nightstalker.
I like the thoughtful and specific way that Andy speaks. Good podcast.
I was an Army Brat and lived on multiple bases. Recently, a retired LTC said thank you for your service. I had to remind him, I didn’t have the choice. I was born into it – to CW5 Mack say the families deserve the thanks… damn. My dad knew what he signed up for, his wife knew, but that was our everyday. We didn’t know anything else…
My station's callsign was 'Brogue'. We were a frickin shoe, honestly who picks a frickin shoe?!?
Great stuff guys. Riveting, edge of my seat shit.
This guys tone said more to me than all the dialogue put together. I started to learn to listen to spec operators talk by listening to what they aren’t saying it’s much more interesting 😈
BJJ is just spicy wrestling.