Meet Col. Allison Black: The USAF’s “Angel of Death”
The Spectre gunship—a Lockheed Martin product—exemplifies the slogan “Death From Above.”
In the Abrahamic religions, the Angel of Death is a concept deeply rooted in both Judaism and Islam; in the latter faith, he is known as Azrael. In more modern times, old-school professional wrestling fans might recall the late Dave Sheldon (July 20, 1953-November 25, 2007), a wrestler who used “The Angel of Death” as his in-ring moniker.
The military, inherent to its very nature, is tasked with the morbid business of dealing with death, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that “The Angel of Death” has been tossed about as a nickname in various military entities. The National Interest now looks at the storied career of retired Col. Allison Black, U.S. Air Force (USAF), Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) Air Education and Training Command pilot extraordinaire who earned that nickname in the heat of battle.
The “Angel of Death’s” Mini-Bio
A native of East Northport, New York, Black is a “mustang,” which in this instance is not a referral to either the legendary P-51D fighter plane of World War II or the classic car that Lee Iacocca blessed the world with, but rather a commissioned officer who started their career in the enlisted ranks (as a quick personal side note, I was also a mustang). She enlisted in the USAF in 1992, spending six years as a SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) specialist, then obtained her commission via Officer Training School in 1998 after earning her bachelor’s degree from Wayland Baptist University.
From there it was off to Undergraduate Pilot Training to earn her pilot’s wings. Long story short, over the course of her twenty-six years of commissioned service, she logged 3,400 flight hours with 2,000 combat hours in the AC-130H Spectre Gunship and U-28A Draco.
The Angel of Death’s Winged Platforms: The AC-130 Gunship and U-28A Draco
The Draco is a modified Pilatus PC-12 single-engine prop-driven plane which supports the AFSOC mission by providing manned fixed-wing tactical airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to humanitarian operations, search and rescue, and conventional and special operation missions. Powered by a Pratt-Whitney PT6A-67B engine generating 1,200 horsepower, the plane has a cruise speed of 328 mph and a range of 1,500 nautical miles.
As for the Spectre gunship—a Lockheed Martin product—exemplifies the slogan “Death From Above”; the H variant flown by Black bristled with two M61 20mm Vulcan cannons, one L60 40mm Bofors cannon, and an M102 105mm howitzer! The mighty warbird’s primary missions are close air support, air interdiction, and armed reconnaissance. Secondary missions include perimeter and point defense, escort, landing, drop and extraction zone support, forward air control (FAC), limited command and control, and combat search and rescue.
Appropriately, it was via the latter platform that Black earned her “Angel of Death” sobriquet.
The Angel of Death Earns Her Title
In an interview with the Newsworthy Women channel titled “Col. Allison Black: The “Angel of Death” and Her Legacy in Air Combat”—reshared on MSN in the first week of February 2025—Black recounted the story of how she earned that nickname in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001, right of the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks:
“And shortly after, we deployed to Afghanistan and it was actually on our first combat mission. So we arrived in Uzbekistan … And they came in with their mission and they gave us a call sign … and the mission we were supporting was an ODA, an Operational Detachment Alpha, an Army Special Forces team, and they were collocated with General Dostum in the Northern Alliance, Afghan warlord and his entourage.
The ODA in question, call sign Tiger 02, found itself—not to mention the aforementioned general and his entourage—being outnumbered by a sizable Taliban force in a nearby compound. Black (a 1st lieutenant at the time) got on the horn with the team’s FAC to sound the alarm and confirm targeting information. The relay proved timely, and then-Lt. Black’s Spectre gunship rained hellfire and brimstone upon the Taliban compound in the form of 400 rounds of 40mm and 100 rounds of 105mm ordnance.
Given the abysmal status of women’s rights in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime that was ruling Afghanistan at the time (and unfortunately regained rulership over the country in 2021), General Dostum was, to say the least, surprised and taken aback to hear a women’s voice relaying the urgent information from overhead. The narrative continues from there:
“He looked at our American Special Forces and said, ‘Is that a woman?’ And they’re like, ‘As a matter of fact, it is.’ He’s like, ‘oh, America is so determined, they bring their women to kill Taliban.’ He couldn’t believe it … ‘Dostum brings [former Taliban leader] Fazal near the radio so that he can hear this female voice. Fazal hears her voice as it’s being explained to him, through the translators, that we have the ‘angel of death’ overhead … and we possess the death ray.”
That so-called “death ray” was simply the laser range finder that the gunship crew used to zero in on their targets, but the Afghan fighters believed that the laser was the actual weapon itself. Dostum directed Fazal to relay to the Taliban soldiers who were still left alive after the ballistic firestorm that if they didn’t surrender immediately, “all of their troops will burn in hell.”
That exhortation to surrender was heeded in short order. To quote the newly-minted Col. Black one more time, “We got to disgrace the enemy and protect our friendly forces.”
Dostum would later gift an AK-47 to this “Angel of Death.”
Fast-forward to July 2022, and Black assumed command of the 1st Special Operations Wing (1st SOW) at Hurlburt Field, Florida. She retired on February 23, 2024.
Where Is She Now?
Black lives in Navarre, Florida, with her husband Ryan and two sons, Connor and Cooper. Enjoy your hard-earned retirement, ma’am, HOOYAH and Bravo Zulu!
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: MSgt Christopher Boitz – US Air Force, Public Domain