The CH-53 Mission to Recover a Downed Night Stalker Helicopter | Ret. Lt. Col Isaac G. Lee

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A downed U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan. Forty-five knot crosswinds. No power margin. In this episode of Combat Story, AJ Pasciuti sits down with Isaac G. Lee , a retired U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 heavy lift pilot with seven deployments and multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Isaac flew more than 140 named combat missions, became a Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI), commanded a Marine helicopter squadron, and led one of the most dangerous recovery missions of the war — lifting a downed Night Stalker aircraft near the Pakistani border with almost no margin for error. We talk about: Flying CH-53s during the Iraq invasion Losing an engine in a hot landing zone Brownout landings…