When Eddie, a chronically drunk friend of Dom's, spouts off about UFO-type lights he's been seeing near his desert trailer, everyone writes him off as a crackpot until one night while taking Eddie home, Dom spots them, too. He and String investigate and discover a military compound nearby headed by a renegade general who is planning a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, while escaping, Dom is shot and it's up to Eddie to ride shotgun aboard Airwolf with String even though he doesn't believe he can do what may be asked of him.
Spoilers ahead. Coverage follows the scope labeled below.
Complete story — includes the ending
An old pilot friend of Santini ( Eugene Roche ), who lost his nerve to fly after a crash had killed his passengers, has become a drunken recluse living in a trailer in the middle of the desert. The man suddenly comes to Santini with a wild story of seeing strange lights in the sky at night. Everyone dismisses the drunken rant until Santini witnesses the lights himself. He and his friend investigate but disappear. Hawke arrives in Airwolf to search for them and uncovers a secret missile base run by fanatical militants who plan to launch their own nuclear missile against Russia.