Literature analysis #2

My book "The Night Stalkers" by Michael J. Durant is about the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment or SOAR. The 160th SOAR is a helicopter regiment in the Army. Their mission is to fly other special operations units into combat such as the Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs and Army Rangers. What makes SOAR unique is that all members have to go threw flight school and serve several years in a regular Army aviation unit before having the oppurtunity to join SOAR. Before they can join they have to go through very physically and mentally demanding training where most candidates will dropout. Not just pilots have to go through the training door gunners, mechanics and even flight engineers all go through the same training.

The author was a pilot in the 160th SOAR for several years. Mike Durant took part in operation gothic serpent or the battle of Mogadishu. He flew Army Rangers into battle in his UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter. He was the second of  2 Blackhawks to be shot down that day. I chose to write about this book because I find books written by military personel very interesting since I'm joining the Army myself.

Mike Durant mostly talks about other soldiers he served with and other members of the 160th SOAR.
He talks about another pilot Major Rick Bowman who was wouldn't during the invasion of Panama in 1989. Also he talks about Captain Keith Lucas who was the first member of SOAR to be killed in action. He was killed during the invasion of Grenada.

Something from the book I intend to remember is the sacrifice that the members of SOAR made. They flew into some of the most dangerous situations to get ground units in or pull them out. They never waivered or refused to go out, they always did what they had to do to complete the mission.