Helicopter Missions

Pilot Tom Baca was days from finishing his tour of duty when he began a simple assignment: transport a staff chaplain to Easter Services via an unarmed Bell UH-1 helicopter. But then the distress call came. 100 soldiers had been ambushed, with enemy troops closing in from all sides. Relive the harrowing rescue that followed, as we detail how Baca and his team relied on wits, bravery and every ounce of The Huey's muscle to pull off an incredible rescue. The odds were stacked against them, but leaving their comrades behind was not an option.

1982. The Falklands War. Three Westland Wessex helicopters drop Special Forces troops into the icy heart of South Georgia for a sneak attack on Argentinian forces. But the surprise is on them when plummeting temperatures and hurricane-force winds force the mission to be aborted. The three helicopters head back to rescue the troops, facing a driving snow that has them literally flying blind. When two choppers crash, it's up to an old, single-engine workhorse known as Humphrey, a chopper built for four, to somehow carry 16 men to safety.

They were volunteers, part of the only reserve rescue wing in the U.S. Air Force, a mere afterthought to many serving in Afghanistan. But when Taliban forces ambushed a covert, four-man Navy SEAL team high in the eastern Afghan mountains, this disregarded unit was called upon to save the day. They came prepared, riding one of the most sophisticated helicopters in the world, a toned-up version of the Blackhawk: The Pave Hawk. Witness this heroic rescue, where reservists showed the world, and themselves, what they're capable of when duty calls.

It was a deadly game of hide-and-seek, pitting a heavily concealed and armored Iraqi tank against a British helicopter, in wide-open skies, with only a thin, aluminum fuselage for protection. The odds were against the Royal Air Force. But this was no ordinary chopper, and no ordinary crew. Join us as the pilots of this storied Westland Lynx relive their mission to find and destroy the enemy before being destroyed themselves. To succeed, these heroes needed to overcome a shortage of fuel, a defiant enemy, and, for one pilot, a checkered past.