The Afterburn Podcast

Today we sit down with an HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue (CSAR) pilot who flew through some of the worst fighting in Afghanistan, and the single mission that changed how he trains the mind for combat.

John "Rain" Waters talks with retired Lt. Col. John Mangan, a decorated CSAR pilot with more than 200 combat missions who commanded the 33rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron in Kandahar. They get into the leave-no-one-behind ethos, the honey-buns story that got a grounded rescue bird fueled in a combat zone, the command chaos of Operation Anaconda, why wounded troops died on runways waiting for approval to launch, and the Helmand rescue of two dying Marines that became the basis for his book, The Three Rings Mindset. Along the way, the science of why a trained pilot froze into his habits under fire, and how repetition and purpose beat fear.

John Mangan: www.JohnManganBooks.com

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00:00 Intro

02:39 Growing up around gunships and A-10s

07:28 Pilot training and the barany chair

17:11 Why he chose combat rescue: leave no one behind

24:41 Iceland and the pre-9/11 "end of history" Air Force

33:59 Operation Anaconda and the honey buns fuel story

43:44 How Anaconda became a war-college lesson in failure

47:24 Wounded troops dying while the chain of command froze

49:28 The four motivations behind every warrior

55:35 Manda Bay: the rescue that never launched

1:01:47 Improvising under fire with a broken minigun

1:04:30 Army dust-off vs Air Force combat rescue

1:11:37 The Pave Hawk flying combat at 12,000 hours

1:14:13 Flying into a firefight for two dying Marines

1:36:21 Why a trained pilot flew over the enemy twice

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Today we break down why the US-Iran war reignited over the Strait of Hormuz, why the June ceasefire collapsed, and what a waterway a single drone can shut means for oil prices, escalation, and how this conflict actually ends.

Mike "FLASH" McVay sits down with Dr. Michael Bosack, founder of the Parley Policy Initiative and former Deputy Secretary of the UN Command Military Armistice Commission, to make sense of the current escalation. The conversation covers the five ways wars actually end, the difference between a negative and a positive peace, the good, bad, and ugly of the memorandum of understanding that was supposed to stop the fighting, why the Strait of Hormuz was the flaw nobody was talking about, and why negotiation at this level is a game of poker, not chess.

Dr. Mike Bosack: https://www.parleypolicy.com/

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00:00 Intro

01:40 Bosack's path: maintenance, MQ-9s, and the Korean Armistice

06:36 What the Parley Policy Initiative actually does

10:10 Phases 4 and 5: the "now what" nobody plans for

14:39 The five ways every war ends

19:57 Negative peace vs positive peace

22:45 Inside the negotiating room: the war stories

31:09 The US-Iran ceasefire deal: good, bad, ugly

36:40 Why the Strait of Hormuz is the real crux

44:26 Why it's not really about the nukes

48:56 How allies complicate the deal

55:26 Negotiation is poker, not chess

01:05:41 How this ends: the range of outcomes

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This is a 3-part series. Best if viewed on Afterburn Defense Youtube. 

Part I: https://youtu.be/MgQ_X3Td8a4

Part II: https://youtu.be/GzdL6NMYDso

Part III: https://youtu.be/Xc22-2RaGSY

Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the F-16 Wild Weasel pilots who flew it. This is the firsthand account of the 55th Fighter Squadron and the 20th Fighter Wing. These are the pilots who fly Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses, known as SEAD, the crews who went in first to suppress Iranian air defenses, and the ground support teams who made the mission possible. Part three covers the mission to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. Recorded between December 2025 and January 2026, this series preserves the experiences of the people who were there, in their own words.

Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) Prep with AFOQT Wingman https://afoqtwingman.com/Code: AFTERBURN for 10% off
🛫 Become a Fighter/Bomber/Cargo/Tanker/RPA Pilot 🎯 : http://bogidope.com/?bd=tappodcast 🛫
🔺 Aviation & Defense Newsletter - https://bit.ly/AfterburnNewsletter 🔺
Become a Patron, Support the Show, & Gain Exclusive Benefits: https://www.patreon.com/c/theafterburnpodcast
🥷 Scrub Your Info from Data Brokers & Protect Yourself | https://aura.com/afterburn 14-day free trial


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Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the F-16 Wild Weasel pilots who flew it. This is the firsthand account of the 55th Fighter Squadron and the 20th Fighter Wing. These are the pilots who fly Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses, known as SEAD, the crews who went in first to suppress Iranian air defenses, and the ground support teams who made the mission possible. 

Part two covers the mission planning and the thoughts of the pilots and other squadron members when they thought of the upcoming mission to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. Recorded between December 2025 and January 2026, this series preserves the experiences of the people who were there, in their own words.

 This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. Have a story? https://theafterburnpodcast.com/contact/ Commonly used Acronyms: https://www.lowdownnews.us/p/operation-midnight-hammer

Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) Prep with AFOQT Wingman https://afoqtwingman.com/Code: AFTERBURN for 10% off
🛫 Become a Fighter/Bomber/Cargo/Tanker/RPA Pilot 🎯 : http://bogidope.com/?bd=tappodcast 🛫
🔺 Aviation & Defense Newsletter - https://bit.ly/AfterburnNewsletter 🔺
Become a Patron, Support the Show, & Gain Exclusive Benefits: https://www.patreon.com/c/theafterburnpodcast
🥷 Scrub Your Info from Data Brokers & Protect Yourself | https://aura.com/afterburn 14-day free trial


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode was designed for video. Watch this episode for text and graphical explanations: https://youtu.be/EDnLrP_45fk

Operation Midnight Hammer through the eyes of the F-16 Wild Weasel pilots who flew it. This is the firsthand account of the 55th Fighter Squadron and the 20th Fighter Wing. These are the pilots who fly Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses, known as SEAD, the crews who went in first to suppress Iranian air defenses, and the ground support teams who made the mission possible. 

Part One covers Operation Rough Rider, the air campaign over Yemen in the spring of 2025 that put these pilots into combat months before Iran. What they learned there is the reason they were ready for what came next. Recorded between December 2025 and January 2026, this series preserves the experiences of the people who were there, in their own words. 

This is Part 1 of a 3-part series.

 Commonly used Acronyms: https://www.lowdownnews.us/p/operation-midnight-hammer 

The full one-on-one interview episodes are coming soon to  @afterburnpodcast 

Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) Prep with AFOQT Wingman https://afoqtwingman.com/Code: AFTERBURN for 10% off
🛫 Become a Fighter/Bomber/Cargo/Tanker/RPA Pilot 🎯 : http://bogidope.com/?bd=tappodcast 🛫
🔺 Aviation & Defense Newsletter - https://bit.ly/AfterburnNewsletter 🔺
Become a Patron, Support the Show, & Gain Exclusive Benefits: https://www.patreon.com/c/theafterburnpodcast
🥷 Scrub Your Info from Data Brokers & Protect Yourself | https://aura.com/afterburn 14-day free trial


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