SAN ANTONIO — After more than four decades of military service, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Xavier Gudino completed his final flight Friday, landing a UH-60 Black Hawk at Martindale Army Airfield in San Antonio.
Gudino, who has served in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, brought the Black Hawk known as “Alamo 67” home for the final time as family members, fellow service members and others gathered to mark the end of his military flying career.
“My wings are tired. The feathers are flying off, as you can see, but the most important thing is to complete the mission and take care of the soldiers,” Gudino said.
Gudino has deployed seven times during his military career. He said his passion for aviation, test flying and mentoring other soldiers kept him serving long after he could have retired.
“A lot of people tell me, ‘How come you didn’t retire at 20 years of service? Twenty-five, 30, 35?’ It was for the love and passion of flying, test flying, mentoring the soldiers, doing the right thing for the aircraft to make sure my brothers and sisters can complete the mission safely,” Gudino said.
For Gudino, that responsibility extended beyond flying the aircraft. He said there was tremendous satisfaction in helping ensure service members could complete their missions and return home safely.
“And every time they came back alive and the aircraft took them and brought them back in, it was a tremendous satisfaction for me and my team, the maintainers,” Gudino said.
His wife, Nidia Gudino, watched Friday as her husband completed his final landing. She said the moment carried additional meaning after years of deployments that took him away from home for extended periods.
“After four decades of serving in the military, he is in the process of retiring next March,” Nidia Gudino said. “So he takes the final flight six months before. This will be the last time he flies his Black Hawk.”
While Gudino’s final military flight is now complete, his formal retirement is still several months away. His wife said she already knows what she hopes he does next.
“I told him that he needs to take a year off and relax and enjoy because he’s deployed seven times,” she said. “He’s been gone for a year at a time, and he’s earned this time.”
For Nidia Gudino, Friday was also a moment to reflect on all the times her husband left — and returned.
“I’m just excited for this next chapter and very thankful to God for allowing him to come home every single time,” she said.
Gudino described the final flight as emotional but said his responsibility in the cockpit remained the same until the aircraft was safely on the ground.
“It was amazing. It was an emotional roller coaster, but at the end, you have to remain focused,” Gudino said. “Never lose that concentration in the cockpit because it’s a life-or-death situation. Any small mistake from an aviator or a pilot can be catastrophic or fatal.”
Gudino is expected to formally retire from the military in March.