Do not adjust your sets. That is in fact Lionel Richie’s face on the side of a U.S. Army National Guard helicopter in the skies above North Carolina.
In fact, the CH-47 Chinook from the Iowa National Guard sports the callsign “Night Long,” after the song “All Night Long (All Night)” by the former Commodores singer and 1980s hitmaker.
The Iowa National Guard deployed ‘Night Long’ and its crew from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment to North Carolina to help in the wake of Hurricane Helene. It’s part of more than more than 7,000 U.S. Army and National Guard troops active in the southeast helping with relief and recovery efforts. Iowa is one of more than a dozen states that have deployed troops to areas affected by Helene. On Friday, the Iowa National Guard deployed another Chinook and its crew to assist.
Most recently, more than 1,000 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were mobilized by the XVIII Airborne Corps to provide additional assets and help with delivery of needed aid to cut-off communities.
The image of the smiling Richie that’s greeting people during aid deliveries as if to say “hello” isn’t new. The aircraft art dates back to 2011, when members of the unit painted Richie’s face on the side of the Chinook for morale and amusement. It initially had ‘Hello’ written on the side of the tail, after the Richie song — the video for which led to several memes in the late 2010s — before changing to ‘Night Long’ afterwards according to the Charlotte Observer. ‘Night Long’ proved easier, and quicker to say over comms than the song’s full title.
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The start of the Lionel Richie association started in Iraq, when the unit — then designated 2nd Battalion, 211th General Support Aviation Regiment — took part in the U.S. drawdown of forces. It quickly adopted Richie’s face as an emblem on patches, t-shirts and other items. The Chinook later deployed to Afghanistan in the past, with the stenciled image of Lionel Richie greeting passerbies at Bagram Air Base. Lionel Richie himself has seen the Chinook and expressed support for its use of his likeness.
The members of Bravo Company 1-171 still maintain a playful approach to several of their patches today. In a photo shared by the Iowa National Guard online, one crewmember aboard ‘Night Long’ in the skies above North Carolina sports a helmet patch that reads ‘Day Stalkers […] the night is scary,’ a play on the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), the U.S. Army’s special operations unit nicknamed the ‘Night Stalkers.’
‘Night Long’ is currently ferrying supplies to cut off or impacted communities in western North Carolina. Each mission sees it bring 14,000 pounds of food and water, according to the Charlotte Observer.
While troops work to help those hurt by Helene, another storm is currently moving across the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Oct. 9 as a Category 4 hurricane. MacDill Air Force Base, located on the western coast of Florida, has started taking precautionary measures in relocating aircraft and personnel ahead of the storm.