falcon one, watch your six

“major steven braumen, united states air force” he thought of himself announcing to his captors. thats even if he lived through the crash. the pave hawk was beginning to swing wildly out of control and the rear door gunner’s yelling and cursing were replaced with the roaring of wind and thick noxious smoke. steve pulled up hard on the collective control arm as he forced the cyclic throttle to a steep right. he began to pump furiously on both rudders without any resistance. “goddamned linkage failure!” he heard himself yell into his helmet. the hulking machine began to vibrate as it slowly pitched left like a 40 million dollar tugboat caught in a black whirlpool of smoke. “falcon one hit! repeat, falcon one hit!” he calmly forced himself to utter the next words, knowing full well they may be his last, “going down, repeat, falcon one going down.” he could feel the nose dipping low and the massive g force threw him violently against his seat. “what in the hell are you doing back there?” his father demanded as he glared at steven through the rearview mirror. “don’t you ever let me catch you holding that helicopter out the window again young man!” major steven braumen took a sip of his juice box as he calmly regained control of the mighty pave hawk. he focused his icey steel blue eyes on the cluster of russian tanks below. “falcon one locked on target, request permission to fire.”