By Brian Freeman
Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War.
With hundreds of thousands dead and millions starving in the early 1990s, the United Nations voted to intervene militarily in Somalia to feed the starving people and begin the process of rebuilding the nation. United Nations, led by United States forces, met powerful resistance from the most powerful clan leader Mohammed Farrah Aidid. Several bloody incidents led the UN and former President Bill Clinton to conclude that Aidid was an obstacle and must be removed. Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War is a minute-by-minute reconstruction of one of the most paramount battles in the short, ill-fated American military campaign to capture and disrupt Mohammed Farrah Aidid in Mogadishu.
Originally former President George Bush Sr. ordered to send an overwhelming deployment of American military forces to help lead the United Nations operation to open relief supply routes against the depredations of Somali militias whose power struggles had caused the famine. The United Nations operation at first is extremely successful. However in late 1992 the most powerful clan Islamic Habr Gidr, headed by warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid, attacked both UN and U.S. forces. President Bill Clinton changed the peacekeeping mission to an assault on Aidid and Habr Gidr. Clinton gives Special Forces Unit Task Force Ranger and Delta Force the job of capturing Aidid.
By this time, Aidid and his clan considered themselves at war with the United States. The planned raid launched on October 3, 1993, and was later called Black Hawk Down. Originally, the plan was to focus on the capture and meeting of two Aidid's senior advisors, reported to be in the most dangerous part of Mogadishu. The goal of the raid was to destabilize Mohammed Farrah Aidid’s clan politically after they failed to capture Aidid. This was the sixth raid of its kind consisting of Army Rangers and Delta Force who were so confident from previous quick victory missions that they neglected to properly equip themselves with night-vision devices, water, and body armor panels.
The mission was led by elite Delta Force soldiers that would go in by helicopter to kidnap the two top Lieutenants of Aidid's clan. The Rangers were given the job of securing the perimeter and escorting convoy that contains the captured Lieutenants of Aidid's clan out of the city. The convoy consisted with 160 men, 19 aircraft, 9 hummers, and 3 five-ton trucks. The operation from the start was marred with problems and would turn disastrous when two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down. After 27 hours of fierce fighting, 18 U.S soldiers are dead and over 70 injured. The Somalian death count was much higher with over 1000 injured and 500 dead.
The planned assault was only supposed to take an hour and was launched into the most dangerous part of Mogadishu. The entire mission changed from capture and extract to search and rescue when the first of five Blackhawks crashes inside the city. Originally commanders thought it was highly unlikely that Somalis could shoot down helicopters with rocket propelled grenades. By the end day the U.S. Military saw five shot down, with two crashing in the city and three limped back to base before crash-landing.
Several Ranger and Delta elements of the attack force fought their way to the crashed chopper and attempted to secure the area. Not only are members of the militia attempting to prevent the Special Forces from securing the area, but the citizens of Mogadishu, who were sick of U.S interference in their country, also take arms. Gunfire is coming from all sides when the second Blackhawk is shot down. The Special Forces unit trying to contain the perimeter around the first crash site were then ordered to spilt up and set up a perimeter around the second crash. While the main convoy containing the captured Lieutenants attempts from the target location to the crash site. The Somalia militia set up road blocks making the convoy disoriented in the city streets. They drove around in circles through heavy fire looking for the crash sites. As the convoy losses mounted and with the two Lieutenants killed in the action, they were forced to return to base, leaving about 100 Americans surrounded by fierce militia at the crash site.
One of the most memorable moments of the book is when snipers Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart volunteer to secure the second crash site until help can arrive, although it arrived far too late. The two snipers along with the help Mike Durant commit a patriotic Alamo last stand and fight to the bitter end. The two snipers fall in combat and Durant is taken hostage, but because of the snipers bravery, they both win Medals of Honor.
The American soldiers are forced to fight through the night with ammo running out and no water. U.S. forces send air support and helicopters continue strafing runs support but this only buys time. The U.S. soldiers around the crash site needed to be evacuated. It is well past midnight before an armored column, which should have been sent originally, could be brought together. The armor units, supported by elements of the 10th Mountain Division, began the rescue, starting with the trapped Americans. Operating in heavy fire, the column finally extracted the pinned-down forces and their captives.
When images of American corpses being dragged through the streets of Somilia and Michael Durant looking bloodied and battered surface, all of Washington is asking what went wrong. A lot of blame was directed about having American troops under United Nations command, but the majority of the blame focused on the Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, which ultimately caused him to lose his job. Les Aspin repeatedly refused to send armor personal carriers and tanks into region.
The lost of American military life forced President Bill Clinton to terminate the hunt for Aidid and pull Task Force Ranger out quickly. A few months later, all US forces withdrew completely from Somalia and UN nation-building effort collapsed. Mark Bowden makes it clear that the failed mission in Somalia had a “profound cautionary influence” on American military policy for years to come. The United States would refuse to send ground troops and conduct. Mark Bowden has taken his award winning series of newspaper articles written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and made it a truly great book about the spirit, professionalism, valor, skill, and nobility of the American fighting forces involved in this conflict. Bowden’s research of first hand source material, documentation of his sources, and reliance on first hand interviews is first rate and qualifies this book as an excellent work of history, not merely a piece of investigative journalism.
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